The state of the world’s leopards inspires hope, with some of the eight subspecies stabilizing or slightly rebounding. But the serious peril of others is causing alarm, according toThough leopards are the most resilient big cat, they have declined by more than 30 percent over the last 22 years—which is three generations. They have disappeared from entire swathes of their historic range and may now be extinct in 26 countries that they formerly roamed.
“People just assume that they're doing well, but the evidence shows that throughout most of their range, they are not,” says Andrew Stein, a leopard expert who headed both this analysis and the previous one in 2016. African leopards are also in the Vulnerable category—and rapidly disappearing. However, we don’t know how many mature individuals or healthy breeding populations there are, says Marine Drouilly, a wild cat biologist with the nonprofit Panthera. In some places, it’s unknown if any are left.
Leopards are the most adaptable big cat, surviving anywhere from deserts to jungles to high mountain peaks—and even urban landscapes. This cat prowls the edge of India's Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the midst of Mumbai, home to 21 million people.“In the 2000s, we estimated that between 25 and 35 individuals remained,” says Dale Miquelle, a big cat expert with the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society. But they have rebounded.
Shrinking habitat, along with diminishing prey and conflict with people, pose the top threats to leopards’ long-term survival, as well as escalating climate change and mushrooming human population.“We suspect that suitable leopard range has been reduced by more than 30 percent worldwide over its last three generations,” the assessment authors wrote. Leopards lost 11 percent of their confirmed homelands during the past eight years.