At least 46 snow leopards now live in the Wolong area of the Giant Panda National Park, in China's Sichuan province, park management announced on Monday, which was International Snow Leopard Day.

The tally was the result of six years of monitoring, with Wolong collaborating with a research team from Peking University from 2017 to 2022 on studies of snow leopards and alpine ecosystems.

Project leader Shi Xiaogang said the population growth uncovered by the team was determined through the analysis and interpretation of over 16,000 images from infrared-triggered cameras. Around 35 adult snow leopards were identified, along with 11 subadults or cubs.

Snow leopards are a first-class protected?wild animal in China and are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

International Snow Leopard Day was established 10 years ago in the Bishkek Declaration on Snow Leopard Conservation. The signatories to the declaration, at a meeting in Kyrgyzstan's capital, were the 11 countries where snow leopards are found in the wild, which include China, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and India.