Snow leopards primarily eat wild sheep and goats, but their diet is not restricted to large ungulates. They also eat a large number of marmots in the summer when they are plentiful. And, they eat snowcock and a lot of mice. Another threat is the traditional Asian medicine market, for which bones and other body parts are ground up and used for a variety of treatments. And the Chinese, now boasting a more affluent class of people, have the money to purchase them.
Retaliation is another problem for snow leopards.
Villagers will kill snow leopards that have killed their livestock. The loss of even one sheep or goat can be quite significant and may represent a large percentage of a villager's income. The livestock pens are not very secure, and sometimes after a snow leopard enters, it gets confused and cannot find its way out. When this happens the cat may go on a killing rampage. Cats caught this way by villagers are often stoned to death.