Sunda Clouded Leopard
There is apparently a film made by a tourist that has never been released. (see more on this: Public film on clouded leopard – note the video has been pulled from the internet but there is some information on the linked page).
This film has been released by scientists working in the Dermakot Forest Reserve in Malaysia. The Sundaland clouded leopard was discovered to be a distinct species about three years ago. It is one of the least known and elusive of all cat species.
This can also be called the Bornean Clouded leopard and as mentioned above is a separate species. They have been photographed in Borneo’s Sebangua National Park, where they have not been seen before. This cat species has apparently 40 differences to the Asian species and was classified separately in 2007. The Sebangau Felid Project team have made it a top priority to protect this particular cat species and to protect the other Bornean wildcats the leopard cat, marbled cat and flat headed cat. They estimated that there are 10,000 clouded leopards in the wild. Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit is part of the Sebangau Felid Project.
The photograph above is by Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian’s National Zoo. The cub is one of two born to Jao Chu and the cubs’ father, two-and-a-half year-old “Hannibal”. They were born in Thailand in a collaborative research program with the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand. The photographs are published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License.
Threats and Conservation of Sunda Clouded Leopard
Threats:
- deforestation at an alarming rate
- hunting, poaching for: skins, bones for medicines, meat for exotic food, live animals for pets.
Conservation:
- Listed in CITES Appendix I
- Protected by national legislation over nearly all of its range
- Hunting is banned in Myanmar, Nepal, Taiwan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet Nam
- Hunting regulations in Lao PDR
- Protected areas.
Sorry to go on but, as mentioned, a major threat is Chinese Medicine, which I am afraid is a threat to a large number of wild and endangered animals including the Bengal tiger, as an example only. Another is the White Siberian tiger. It really is time the Chinese authorities created laws and regulations to exercise some control over this form of medicine, which is rooted in the past. See Clouded Leopard Population (2010).
