<P> To help spread the word amongst the people, government authorities, and conservation groups in each range country, 2015 was designated the International Year of the Snow Leopard as part of the GSLEPP's work . All range - country governments, nongovernmental and inter-governmental organizations, local communities, and various private sector businesses pledged to take the year as an opportunity to further work towards conservation of snow leopards and their high - mountain ecosystems . </P> <P> The total wild population of the snow leopard was estimated at 4,510 to 7,350 individuals . Many of these estimates are rough and outdated . An estimate from 2016, using data from a number of studies, proposed a population of 4,700 to 8,700 individuals across only 32 percent of the species' range, suggesting that the total number of snow leopards was larger than previously thought . This estimate has been disputed by other conservationists, including Gustaf Samelius and Som Ale, who have raised concerns about the scientific validity of the data used in that estimate . </P> <P> In 1972, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) placed the snow leopard on its Red List of Threatened Species as endangered until downgraded to vulnerable in 2017 following the most recent assessment in 2016 . </P> <P> There are also approximately 600 snow leopards in zoos around the world . The Richmond Metropolitan Zoo in Virginia, in the United States of America, has snow leopard cubs born in 2016 . </P>

When was the snow leopard listed as endangered