Mainland clouded leopard: IUCN Red List status update

Diversity and Distributions, 2019

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Diversity and Distributions

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Population Ecology, 2015

The mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is classified as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List, meaning that it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. However, hardly any ecological research has been published on this species apart from several radiotelemetry studies in Thailand and Nepal, and one camera‐trapping study in India. Here we present findings on the clouded leopard from a camera‐trapping study conducted in Temengor forest reserve (a logged‐over forest) and Royal Belum State Park (a primary forest) within Peninsular Malaysia. Using the spatially‐explicit capture‐recapture method, the density from Temengor forest reserve and Royal Belum State Park was estimated at 3.46 ± SE 1.00 and 1.83 ± SE 0.61, respectively. Clouded leopard habitat use was found to be highly influenced by the availability of small and medium prey species and therefore intrinsically highlights the potential conservation importance of species such as pig‐tailed macaques, porcupine, mouse deer ...

Current Biology, 2006

The clouded leopard, Neofelis nebulosa, is an endangered semiarboreal felid with a wide distribution in tropical forests of southern and southeast Asia, including the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in the Indonesian archipelago [1]. In common with many larger animal species, it displays morphological variation within its wide geographical range and is currently regarded as comprising of up to four subspecies . It is widely recognized that taxonomic designation has a major impact on conservation planning and action . Given that the last taxonomic revision was made over 50 years ago [2], a more detailed examination of geographical variation is needed. We describe here the results of a morphometric analysis of the pelages of 57 clouded leopards sampled throughout the species' range. We conclude that there are two distinct morphological groups, which differ primarily in the size of their cloud markings. These results are supported by a recent genetic analysis . On that basis, we give diagnoses for the distinction of two species, one in mainland Asia (N. nebulosa) and the other in Indonesia (N. diardi).

Ongoing deforestation in Southeast Asia is leading to increased fragmentation and reduction of habitat for the mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). Using the largest detection/non-detection camera trap survey dataset known for the species throughout its range, we investigated factors affecting clouded leopard habitat use across Peninsular Malaysia. Habitat use was modelled using fine scale covariates and recently developed analytical techniques to account for spatial autocorrelation. Clouded leopard habitat use increased with increasing distance from water bodies, higher numbers of discontinuous core areas per unit area and higher elevation. In addition , clouded leopard habitat use was higher in sites with higher average forest change values. After extrapolating the predicted habitat use of clouded leopards across the whole of Peninsular Malaysia, we assessed the suitability of proposed ecological linkages, and identified other suitable forest patches not within the current Central Forest Spine. Our findings are valuable for land use planning and management, in particular, for determining the suitability of forest remnants to support populations of clouded leopard and predicting how this species will respond in human-dominated landscapes. Crown

Oryx, 2017

The Vulnerable clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa is believed to be one of the most threatened felid species in Nepal. Information on its status and population size in the country mostly comprises crude estimates. We compiled information on the species' status and distribution from published papers, grey literature, camera-trap images, direct observations, pelt, zoo and museum records, wildlife seizures and verified newspaper reports. All confirmed records of the species (three museum specimens, one dead specimen,  live records (including from camera traps), and  pelts) were from eastern and mid-central Nepal. Two unconfirmed reports from the western and far-western regions of the country need to be verified. Although the status of the species is still uncertain, the frequency of confirmed and unconfirmed reports and the extent of the area of occurrence indicate that it is not as rare as previously assumed. The main threats to the species are habitat loss and illegal wildlife trade.

The Sunda clouded leopard Neofelis diardi is an extremely challenging species to study and as such remains one of the least known of the world's larger (>10 kg) cats. We used a combination of radio-tracking and camera-trap surveys to provide some of the fi rst insights into the spatial and temporal ecology of this elusive felid. A female clouded leopard, radio-tagged and tracked over 109 days in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, occupied a home-range of 16.1 km 2 and a core-range of 5.4 km 2 (95% and 50% fi xedkernel estimators, respectively). Photographic records of this species from three intensive camera-trap surveys, amounting to 135 independent capture events of at least 22 individuals, were pooled and used to investigate patterns of activity. Sunda clouded leopards were found to be primarily, although not exclusively, nocturnal. We compare our results with those from two fi eld studies of the mainland clouded leopard, N. nebulosa, in Thailand. Although preliminary, our data serve to underscore the need for more intensive research of this elusive wild cat. KEY WORDS. -activity patterns, Borneo, homerange, Neofelis diardi THE RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY 2013 61(2):

Biological Conservation, 2018

Clouded leopards are among Asia's most widely distributed felids, but also among its least known and most vulnerable. Clouded leopards occur in some of the most rapidly disappearing forests in the world, yet a comprehensive assessment of their status and habitat use is lacking, which in turn limits identification of their priority conservation needs and capacity to act as umbrella species for conserving associated forest biodiversity. To address this need for the Sunda species (Neofelis diardi), we applied multi-scale modeling to identify both key environmental variables influencing habitat use and optimal scales of relationship with these variables. We detected clouded leopards at 18.3% of 1544 camera stations and 17 of 22 sampling locations on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Multi-scale GLMM revealed that recent forest loss and large-scale plantations strongly and negatively influence clouded leopard detection. Our findings also suggest that higher elevations and ridges are important components of N. diardi habitat use. We illustrate how scale optimization of habitat use can provide critical information for characterizing the requirements of protected areas, and identify core habitat patches and connectivity gaps in need of future protection. Our findings indicate greater challenges facing clouded leopards on Sumatra, including higher poaching pressure, greater fragmentation, and roughly half the habitat area available to N. diardi on Borneo. This research contributes vital insights to assist in prioritizing habitat conservation networks for the protection of this vulnerable felid and the forest biodiversity for which it is an ambassador species.

Oryx, 2014

We use data from camera-trap surveys for tigers Panthera tigris in combination with spatial capturerecapture models to provide the first density estimates for the Sunda clouded leopard Neofelis diardi on Sumatra. Surveys took place during 2004-2007 in the Kerinci landscape. Densities were 0.385-1.278 per 100 km 2. We found no statistically significant differences in density among four study sites or between primary and mixed forest. Because the data sets are too small to account for differences in detection parameters between sexes, density is probably underestimated. Estimates are comparable to previous estimates of 1-2 per 100 km 2 from the lowlands of central Sabah, on Borneo. Data limitations suggest that camera-trap surveys for Sunda clouded leopards require traps spaced more closely, to increase the chance of recaptures at different traps. Nevertheless, these first density estimates for clouded leopards on Sumatra provide a benchmark for measuring future conservation impact on an island that is undergoing rapid forest loss.