The snow leopard ranges includes alpine meadows, treeless rocky mountains and rhododendron forests. Most of their range occurs in Tibet and other parts of china associated with steep rocky slopes, with arid shrub land, grassland or steppe vegetation. Occasionally, in parts of their habitats they visit open coniferous forests, but generally avoid dense forests. They are found at high elevations of 3000-4500 meters
This hideous trade applies to almost all wild cats including snow leopards. Practitioners of traditional chinese medicine think that the bones of this cat are good to treat pain and inflammation and to strengthen muscles,tendons and bones ) endtigertrade.org). The bones are a substitute for tiger bone. The tiger is more persecuted than the snow leopard. Officially chinese medicine stopped using tiger bone but it still goes on and is a major threat.
As at 2002, in Tibet, snow leopard bones (not sure how much) fetched $190 while a pelt was worth $9-18 (USD in both cases) indicating the value of bones (WoW). It is very sad.
