The clouded leopard looks like one of the "big
cats" in miniature, having the powerful, robust build of a large cat. It
has a head and body length of 82 - 99 cm (32 - 39") and weighs 11 - 19 kg
(24 - 42 lb). Its coat is grayish or yellowish, with dark markings
("clouds") in shapes such as circles, ovals, and rosettes. The
forehead, legs, and base of the tail are spotted, and the remainder of the tail
is banded. The tail is long, the legs are stout, and the paws are broad. The
clouded leopard is most closely associated with primary evergreen tropical
rainforest, but it also makes use of other types of habitat, such as relatively
open, dry tropical forest, mangrove forest, secondary and logged forest,
grassland and scrub.
The diet of the clouded leopard is thought to include a
variety of arboreal and terrestrial vertebrates, such as orangutan, young
sambar deer, barking deer, mouse deer, bearded pig, palm civet, gray leaf
monkey, and porcupine. Fish, birds and poultry are sometimes taken.The clouded leopard is highly adapted for an
arboreal life, but it has also been observed exhibiting terrestrial behavior.
Similarly, although it is generally considered to be primarily nocturnal, it is
sometimes also active during the daytime. The clouded leopard swims well and
has been found on small offshore islands. Clouded leopards are believed to be
solitary animals except during the breeding season.
The clouded leopard is found from central Nepalin the eastern foothills of the Himalayas through
southern Chinaand most of southeast Asia to the islands of Sumatra (Indonesia)
and Borneo (Brunei,Indonesia, Malaysia).
Little is known about its status in any part of its geographic range, but
recent records suggest a thin but widespread distribution.
Deforestation, resulting from commercial logging and the
growth of human settlements, is thought to be the foremost threat to the
clouded leopard. Not only does deforestation remove the clouded leopard's own
habitat, but it reduces the number of prey animals. Hunting of this cat for its
fur and teeth as well as its bones, which are prized in the traditional Asian
medicinal trade, is another major threat. The clouded leopard has also been
featured on the menu of restaurants in Chinaand Thailandwhich cater to wealthy Asian tourists, and it is sometimes persecuted for
killing livestock.
Tidbits
*** Cat Tidbit #5: Cats have the most highly developed
binocular vision of all the carnivores. Their eyes are set well forward and
relatively high on the skull, allowing them to accurately judge distances while
leaping from branch to branch or pouncing on prey. (Sunquist & Sunquist
2002) (See Cat Tidbit #6.)
*** For its size, the clouded leopard has the longest canine
teeth of any living cat (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002). Some call it the world’s
only living saber-toothed cat (Humphrey & Bain 1990).
*** In Malaysia,
the clouded leopard's local name means ‘branch-of-a-tree tiger' (Arkive 2005).
*** Clouded leopards are remarkably secretive creatures for
their size (Nowell & Jackson 1996).
Status and Trends
IUCN Status:
[The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of
Nature; also called the World Conservation Union) is the world’s largest
conservation organization. Its members include countries, government agencies,
and non-governmental organizations.The
IUCN determines the worldwide status of threatened animals and publishes the
status in its Red List.]
Countries Where the
Clouded Leopard Is Currently Found:
2005: Occurs in Bhutan,Brunei, China,India, Indonesia(Kalimantan, Sumatra), Laos,Malaysia, Myanmar,Nepal, Thailand,
and Viet Nam.
May be extinct in Bangladesh,Cambodia and Taiwan.
(IUCN 2005)
Taxonomy:
Recent genetic analyses have lead to the proposal that all
modern cats can be placed into eight lineages which originated between 6.2 -
10.8 million years ago. The clouded leopard is placed in the "Panthera
lineage," which diverged from its ancestors as a separate lineage 10.8
million years ago. The Panthera lineage also includes the lion, the jaguar, the
leopard, the tiger, and the snow leopard. (Johnson et al. 2006)
Population Estimates:
[Note: Figures
given are for wild populations only.]
* WORLD
o The
clouded leopard’s total effective population size is estimated at below 10,000
mature breeding individuals (IUCN 2005).
Distribution:
The clouded leopard is found in tropical and sub-tropical
forests from central Nepal in the eastern foothills of the Himalayas through
southern China and most of southeast Asia to the islands of Sumatra (Indonesia)
and Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia). Little is known about its status in
any part of its geographic range, but recent records suggest a thin but
widespread distribution almost everywhere. Camera trapping surveys conducted in
several southeast Asian countries find the clouded leopard to be relatively
rare compared to other cat species. (Austin & Tewes 1999, Sunquist &
Sunquist 2002, Choudhury 2003, Arkive 2005, IUCN 2005)
Distribution Map #1 (2 Kb GIF) (Big Cats Online)
Distribution Map #2 (135 Kb JPEG) (AZA Felid TAG)
Threats:
Deforestation, resulting from commercial logging and the
growth of human settlements, is thought to be the foremost threat to the
clouded leopard. Not only does deforestation remove the clouded leopard's own
shelter and habitat, but it reduces the number of prey animals. As humans have
increasingly encroached on their habitats, these leopards have been known to
prey on livestock, which puts them at risk of being killed by the owners.
Another major threat is the hunting of this cat for its fur and teeth as well
as its bones, which are prized in the traditional Asian medicinal trade.
Clouded leopards have also featured on the menu of restaurants in Chinaand Thailandwhich cater to wealthy Asian tourists. (Arkive 2005, IUCN 2005)
Data on Biology and Ecology
Size and Weight:
The head and body
length of female clouded leopards is 69 - 94 cm (27 - 37") (avg 82 cm
(32")) (n = 4), while for males it is 81 - 108 cm (32 - 43") (avg 99
cm (39")) (n = 5). Females weigh about 11 kg (24 lb) (n = 2), while males
weigh 18 - 20 kg (40 - 44 lb) (avg 19 kg (42 lb)) (n = 4). (Sunquist &
Sunquist 2002)
Habitat:
The clouded
leopard is usually characterized as being most closely associated with primary
evergreen tropical rainforest, but it also makes use of other types of habitat.
Sightings have also been made in secondary and logged forest, as well as
grassland and scrub. In Myanmarand Thailand,
its presence has been reported from relatively open, dry tropical forest. The
clouded leopard has also been recorded from mangrove forest in Borneo.
In China, it
apparently occurs in a variety of forest types, but there is no information on
habitat preference or ecology across this large portion of its geographic
range. It has been recorded in the Himalayan foothills up to 1450 m (4800'),
and possibly as high as 3000 m (9800'). (IUCN 2005)
The clouded
leopard is found in the Himalaya, Indo-Burma, and
Sundaland Biodiversity Hotspots (Cons. Intl. 2005).
Age to Maturity:
Clouded leopards
reach sexual maturity by 20 - 30 months of age (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002).
Gestation Period:
The gestation
period ranges from 85 - 109 days, but 88 - 95 days seems more typical (Sunquist
& Sunquist 2002).
Birth Season:
There is no
evidence of a confined breeding season in the wild for the clouded leopard
(Humphrey & Bain 1990).
Birth Rate:
Litter size in
captivity is 1 - 5 kittens, most often 3 (7 of 9 litters) (Nowell & Jackson
1996). There is little information on the interbirth interval of the clouded
leopards because in captivity it is sometimes necessary to remove kittens from
the den shortly after birth for hand rearing, and this may cause breeding to
occur sooner than it would otherwise. Of four examples in captivity, on two
occasions the interbirth interval was about one year, once it was about 16
months, and once 10 months (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002).
Early Development:
Young captive
clouded leopards begin to climb and show an interest in solid food by 6 weeks
and begin killing their own prey at 11 weeks. Weaning occurs by about 80 - 100
days and adult pelage appears by 6 months. (Tan 1996, Humphrey & Bain 1990)
Dispersal:
Clouded leopard
cubs achieve independence at nine months (Arkive 2005).
Maximum Reproductive
Age:
12 - 15 years
(captivity) (Nowell & Jackson 1996).
Maximum Age:
A captive clouded
leopard was still living at 19 years and 6 months (Nowak 1999).
Diet:
What little is
known of the feeding ecology of the clouded leopard suggests that it preys on a
variety of arboreal and terrestrial vertebrates. In Indiait feeds on small deer and other animals of similar size, including domestic stock
such as goats and pigs. Birds and poultry are sometimes taken. In Borneoit is reported to prey on orangutans, young sambar deer, barking deer, mouse
deer, bearded pig, palm civet, gray leaf monkey, fish and porcupine. (Sunquist
& Sunquist 2002)
Behavior:
It used to be
thought that the clouded leopard was primarily arboreal. On the one hand, there
seems to be no question that its arboreal abilities and adaptations are highly
developed: the structure of its wrist bones allows the clouded leopard to grip
a tree trunk or branch in much the same way as a squirrel does, it has been
seen to run down tree trunks head-first as few other cats can, it can move
along horizontal branches while hanging beneath them like a sloth, and it can
hang upside down from branches by its hind feet. (Nowell & Jackson 1996,
Seidensticker & Lumpkin 1996, Sunquist & Sunquist 2002, Arkive
2005)However, reports from various
studies provide different indications as to how arboreal the clouded leopard
really is:
* A study was
conducted in Taiwanby interviewing eyewitness who had seen a clouded leopard. In the 24 instances
people remembered where it had been seen, 13 were in trees and 11 on the
ground. (Rabinowitz 1988)
* Monitoring
of a radio-collared subadult male clouded leopard in Nepalfor 8 successive days indicated only terrestrial behavior. It was frequently
found resting in grasslands among dense patches of the 4 - 6 m (13 - 20') tall
grasses. (Dinerstein & Mehta 1989)
* In a study
in Sumatra, Indonesiausing photo-trapping, all but one of the pictures of the clouded leopard were
obtained with a camera set to capture arboreal species (Holden 2001).
* A 1986
survey of villagers, timber workers, and forestry officials in Sabahand Sarawak, Malaysia,
resulted in 161 first-hand reports of clouded leopard sightings. Of all the
sightings, 82 % were of clouded leopards traveling on the ground, usually on
roads and trails in either primary or selectively logged secondary forest. The
survey team concluded that [in this area] clouded leopards were not truly
arboreal, but used trees in primary forest as daytime rest sites. (Sunquist
& Sunquist 2002)
Literature is not
conclusive concerning the daily activity patterns of clouded leopards. Both
older as well as some recent literature suggests that the clouded leopard is
strictly nocturnal (Austin & Tewes 1999). However, there are also reports
that daytime activity has been observed in the wild and in captive animals,
indicating that they are not strictly nocturnal (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002):
* In Sumatra,
Indonesia the clouded
leopard was reported to become extremely cautious and exclusively nocturnal in
areas close to human habitation (Santiapillai 1989).
* During a
study utilizing photo-trapping in the GunungLeuserNational Parkin Sumatra, Indonesia,
most photographs of the clouded leopard taken by camera traps were at night
(Nowell & Jackson 1996).
* Another
study using photo-trapping in Sumatra, Indonesiashowed that clouded leopard are mostly nocturnal but tended towards cathemeral
activity in undisturbed areas (Holden 2001).
* In a study
in Thailand in Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, where 4 clouded leopards were
radio-tracked, diel activity patterns indicated that clouded leopards exhibited
arrhythmic activity, with peak activity occurring between 0801 - 1200 H (avg
70% active) and 1801 - 2000 H (avg 69% active). Nocturnal activity peaks were
observed between 2001 - 2200 H and 0001 - 0200 H (avg 66% active). (Grassman et
al. 2005)
A study of two
clouded leopards in Khao Yai National Park, Thailandfound that the female moved an average of 960 m/day (3100'/day) while the male
moved a slightly greater daily distance of 1080 m (3500') (Austin & Tewes
1999). In the study in Thailand’s Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary mentioned above,
where 4 clouded leopards were radio-tracked, the distances between
consecutive-day locations for all four cats averaged 1900 m (6300') (range 120
- 7700 m/day (400 - 25,000'/day) (Grassman et al. 2005)
Clouded leopards
swim well and have been found on small islands off of Borneo(Sabah, Malaysia)and Viet Nam(Nowell & Jackson 1996).
Clouded leopard
young are reported to den in tree hollows, but nothing else is known about
rearing habits in the wild (Grassman et al. 2005).
Social Organization:
Clouded leopards
are believed to be solitary animals except during the breeding season, when the
males seek out the females (Arkive 2005).
In the Grassman et
al. 2005 study mentioned above, each clouded leopard home range overlapped a
conspecific's home range. The amount of overlap occurring between males and
females was 31% ± 28 SD (11 - 83%).Overlap among male home ranges was 31% and 47 %. (Grassman et al. 2005)
Range:
Khao
Yai National Park, Thailand:
For one female clouded leopard, the home range was 33.3 sq km (12.8 sq mi),
while a male used a home range of 36.7 sq km (14.2 sq mi) (Austin & Tewes
1999).
Phu Khieo Wildlife
Sanctuary, Thailand: Home ranges for two male clouded leopards were 45.1 sq km
(17.4 sq mi) and 29.7 sq km (11.5 sq mi); for two females they were 25.7 sq km
(9.9 sq mi) and 22.9 sq km (8.8 sq mi). (Grassman 2003)
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