Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, ajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Borders between these countries are often along mountain ranges - the same high mountain ranges are also the abode of the snow leopard. Snow leopards inhabit the mountains of Central Asia over a 1.5 million sq km area. In Russia, snow leopards are found in the Altai and the western Sayan mountains very nearly to Lake Baikal. Reports of occurrence in the Kopet Dag Mountains of Turkmenistan are erroneous.
Few animals match the rare beauty and quiet mystery of the snow leopard.
There are perhaps 6,000 snow leopards left in the wild. Snow leopard is endangered in much of its range. Factors like illegal fur trade and human encroachment on their habitat are making the snow leopard disapper at an alarming rate. Recent surveys by George Schaller have suggested that there are about 1,000 snow leopards in an occupied range of some 90,000 sq km. Distribution of snow leopards is extremely fragmented in this country.