Studies on wild snow leopards are hard to conduct, since they inhabit a difficult, sometimes even inaccessible terrain for humans, and live in very low densities. Nowadays, wildlife cameras and GPS collars are often used when studying wild snow leopards. Wildlife cameras are placed to monitor sites where snow leopards are expected to often pass. By installing cameras at these special sites, the chances of successfully identifying each snow leopard, which is based on the pelt patterns, increases thanks to multiple pictures of each individual. However, it can be difficult to identify the snow leopards from the pictures, especially in the winter when the fur is thick and the pelt patterns are more blurry. This calls for alternative identification methods to make it simpler and more efficient to do research on wild snow leopards, and other species.

Environmental enrichment in zoos is often defined as a way to change something in the animals’ environment, for example the enclosure features, feeding routines or the way the animals are handled in order to improve the animals’ welfare. Environmental enrichment is a common strategy to reduce stereotypic behaviours, and it can also be used to increase the frequency and diversity of species-specific behaviours.

Different scents are a common enrichment offered to captive felids with mixed results.Providing cinnamon and black pepper, one spice at a time, reduced pacing in male jaguars (Panthera onca), but did not give significant results for the female. Olfactory enrichment can also result in increased expressions of species-specific behaviours and an increase in active behaviour in both large cats, like lions (Panthera leo), and small cats, like the black-footed cat (Felis nigripes). Even though some studies with such odours show good results, these odours have also shown to lose their effects within a couple of days, when offered all day round.