Snow leopards use snow to blend into the environment to hunt their prey. The retreat of snow lines leads to a narrowing of the hunting zone. With only around seven thousand snow leopards in the wild, any change in the environment could be catastrophic. “The results indicate that approximately 30% of snow leopard habitat in the Himalayas could be lost due to treeline shift and consequent shrinkage of the alpine zone, primarily along the southern edge of range and in river valleys (Forest, 129). » A thirty percent decrease in habitat is a huge statistic. But that's not all: as global warming continues, ice caps will melt more quickly and, in the worst case, the depletion of a primary water source for all wildlife and humans will be inevitable. “In total, the entire ice mass of the Hindu Kush and Himalayas is estimated to have declined over the past two decades. Additionally, the rate of melting appears to be accelerating (Barnett, 306). » To further this research, it is argued that if this trend continues for several more decades, fossil water would cease to produce and therefore flow.