Ecosystem

High mountains

The steep, cold ranges of the Himalaya and the Carpathians, where large carnivores roam vast territories.

Photo: Rohit Tandon / Unsplash

Mountains cover 24% of Earth’s land, and more than half of humanity depends on them for water.1 Climb high enough and the world changes every few hundred metres, with plants and animals stacked in bands, each adapted to its own slice of altitude.1

Why they matter

High mountains are where the large carnivores still have room. Snow leopards hunt the alpine zones of Central Asia between 3,000 and 4,500 m,3 and the Carpathians, 1,500 km long, hold Europe’s largest populations of brown bears, wolves and lynx.2

Under pressure

Mountain environments are especially sensitive to climate change and are changing faster than at any time in the last 10,000 years, with glaciers shrinking and landslides becoming more frequent.1

What we do

Our snow leopard monitoring recognises individual cats from camera-trap photos in Kyrgyzstan, and our bear deterrence project helps bears and Carpathian farmers share the same valleys.

Snow Leopard Monitoring

Snow Leopard Monitoring

Non-invasive snow leopard monitoring using computer vision analysis of camera trap photos to identify individual animals.

Open to collaboration

Every project here was built hand in hand with conservation partners, and much of the code is open source. If our work fits a challenge you're facing, or you'd like to build something together, we'd love to hear from you.