Warming temperatures could cause the tree line to shift up the mountains and cause farmers to plant crops and graze livestock at higher altitudes, squeezing the snow leopards into smaller ranges where they are more likely to come into conflict with humans. Conflict with communities in the high mountains of central Asia, who see the leopards as a threat to livestock and human lives, along with poaching, habitat loss and a reduction in numbers of prey have seen numbers of the ?ghost of the mountains? fall 20% in 16 years. In a report released on International Snow Leopard Day, conservation charity WWF warned that with numbers as low as 4,000, snow leopards would face increasing pressure from climate change, which could reduce them to unsustainable numbers in many populations. Read More?at ?www.theguardian.com