On 14 September, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that the snow leopard's conservation status had improved from "endangered" to "vulnerable." The decision was made after a long analysis which showed that the snow leopard population is no longer sharply declining.

Species are classified as endangered when there are less than 2,500 individuals and when the population has decreased by more than 20 percent over the past two generations. Today, IUCN estimates the number of snow leopards at 7,367-7,884 individuals living in Central and South Asia, as well as in the Altai Mountains in Russia.

Snow leopards are still under the threat of extinction. "The species still faces a high risk of extinction in the wild, and is likely still declining ‒ just not at the rate previously thought," said Dr Tom McCarthy, who runs the Snow Leopard Programme at the Panthera big cat charity.