CARL WRITES: Formosan Clouded Leopard Survival

A stunning clouded leopard subspecies thought to have been extinct for the last 30 years has been spotted in Southeast Taiwan. Officially declared extinct by zoologists in 2013 after not being seen alive since 1983, the Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura) attained cryptozoological status in 2018 after locals in the Southeast Taiwan town of Daren, Taitung, reported seeing the ‘extinct’ cat in the forests.

In February 2019, Taiwan News reported two sightings by two different groups of rangers in Taitung County, both made in the summer of 2018. One report was of an individual climbing a tree and climbing a cliff in order to hunt mountain goats, while another was of an individual darting past a motorist on a road before retreating into a tree. According to the village chief Kao Cheng-chi, researchers are now working with the villagers to keep hunters away in an attempt to protect the animals and also to limit the destruction of their habitat.

A previous 13 year camera trapping study by zoologists failed to find even a single clouded leopard, which following excessive logging, forced the cats into the more mountainous regions.

In 1989, the skin of a young individual was found in the Taroko National Park area, which was the last confirmed report. Pugmarks reported in the 1990’s near Yushan National Park were suspected, but were not confirmed to be of a clouded leopard.

The Tawa Mountain Nature Reserve is a protected area encompassing approximately 190 square miles. It harbours the largest remaining primary forest in Southern Taiwan and comprises tropical and subtropical rainforest as well as temperate broadleaf and mixed forest and temperate coniferous forest – there is hope that this illusive big cat might have also migrated into this reserve.

Ironically, owing to the relative rarity of reports of live Formosan clouded leopards even before it’s alleged extinction, there was a hypothesis among a few researchers that the Formosan clouded leopard never existed, and that the pelts frequently worn by indigenous communities were Sunda clouded leopard pelts that were being traded between the Sunda Islands, China, and Japan.

The lesson - Never say never!