Known for its ability to go undetected by humans and wildlife alike, the leopard is one of the animal kingdom’s stealthiest species, staying out of sight by perching high up in the treetops or hiding in thick underbrush.

Yet, tracking the movements of these elusive creatures has become one of Matt Snider’s specialities during his time as a graduate student in the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University.

Snider, who graduated with a master’s degree in fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology in May 2019, has spent the last few years studying movement ecology in parts of Africa and Asia.

His thesis paper, “A Tale of Two Techniques: Leopard Collar Tracking and Mt. Kenya Camera Trapping,” examines how leopard home range behavior is impacted by human population density.

Snider noted that wildlife, particularly species with large home ranges, are increasingly affected by human activity, since these animals are more likely to encounter disturbances caused by people.

He added that leopards are well-suited for studying the effects of human activity on wildlife movement. Though the species now occupies less than 40% of its historic range, leopards can still coexist with humans in areas of both high and low population density.

While the leopard is reclusive and spends most of its time alone, the species is highly adaptable and is the most widespread of all the big cats, with a historical range of about 13.5 million square miles across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Unfortunately, like other large carnivores, the leopard is declining across its range and faces a growing number of threats, including habitat loss and conflict with humans. 

Much of the leopard’s historical range has been converted to agriculture to produce crops for the growing human population, especially in Southeast Asia.

In Africa, this threat is expected to intensify in the coming decades as economies expand, land use changes and human populations continue to rise.

Leopards are opportunistic and typically require large home ranges, so they are more likely to come into contact with human settlements and prey on livestock. When this occurs, farmers often retaliate by killing leopards to protect their animals.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature currently classifies the leopard as “vulnerable” to extinction and recognizes nine subspecies.

Snider said wildlife conservation on a landscape scale requires an accurate understanding of the ways in which habitats are used by resident mammals. Home range size provides insight into the habitat quality, animal density and social organization. 

After compiling the tracking data of 76 individual leopards from 10 research projects in seven countries, Snider uploaded it into the Movebank animal tracking database and compared leopard home range size with human population density, vegetative productivity, temperature, precipitation and habitat openness. 

Snider’s analysis discovered that habitat type could modify the relationship between humans and leopards. While leopard home range size increased with rising human population density in closed habitats, it decreased with increasing human density in open habitats. 

Leopards in regions with higher human populations, such as India and Kenya, had the smallest home ranges, living in close proximity to people. In contrast, leopards in Namibia and Iran had the largest home ranges, occupying relatively uninhabited landscapes or expansive protected parks.

Although leopards face persecution by humans in some areas, Snider notes that higher livestock populations in open habitats may provide more food, allowing them to maintain smaller home ranges near people. In contrast, leopards in more closed habitats near human settlements may survive by preying on domestic animals such as dogs.

Snider said his analysis ultimately shows the potential for “broad scale comparisons across multiple studies to address large scale relationships in ecology.” 

Future comparisons of leopard home ranges and human population densities could benefit conservation managers as they try to mitigate negative interactions, according to Snider.

Snider emphasized the importance of understanding how leopards adapt to landscapes shared with humans and which factors most influence their behavior.

He noted that studies of growing leopard populations near major urban centers, such as Mumbai, suggest that areas with abundant human-related food sources could become key habitats for leopards as long as their presence does not trigger local conflict.

Looking ahead, Snider plans to pursue his doctoral degree under the direction of Roland Kays, a research professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, continuing his research on large mammal movement and landscape use.