Rarely seen clouded leopard family captured in video for first time

David Strege
·1 min read

The endangered Bornean clouded leopard has only been recorded by camera traps a few times in Tanjung Puting National Park, but never a mother with her two infants.

“To witness a family is extraordinary,” the Orangutan Foundation stated in a post with an Indonesian Borneo dateline. “For the population to be reproducing is an extremely encouraging sign.”

The Orangutan Foundation, working with the Tanjung Puting National Park, recorded what it called “some amazing, rare footage of family of endangered Bornean clouded leopards” on April 9.

“The clouded leopard is an arboreal species and excellent hunter on the ground that plays an important role in maintaining the ecosystem,” the Orangutan Foundation stated. “As one of the rarest species to find, being able to see a female and cubs gives us evidence that they are healthy and actively breeding.”

Clouded leopards are very rarely seen in the wild, so the discovery on the camera trap was a welcomed sight, indeed.

More from the Orangutan Foundation:

Their vulnerability towards extinction is increased by their low recruitment rate, meaning that less adults produce and raise offspring which live long enough to join the breeding population at two years old. The fact that offspring are present in Tanjung Puting National Park demonstrates it is an optimum habitat for their population.

The Bornean clouded leopard is classified as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. As a forest-dependent species, habitat loss from deforestation has reduced the population to likely less than a third in recent years.

It is important to protect the forest habitat, enabling a safe environment for this mother and her offspring, and other individuals, to grow up safely and one day reproduce themselves.

Story originally appeared on For The Win

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