Mainland Clouded Leopard

About this species

Size

Shoulder height 50–55cm

Habitat

Dense primary forest

Range

Northeast India: recorded in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram

The clouded leopard is a medium-sized, short-legged cat named for the large, cloud-shaped blotches on its coat: dark-edged grey or dusky patches on a grey to ochre background. Broken stripes run from the eyes and mouth across the cheeks and neck, and the ears are black. Its upper canine teeth are the longest of any living cat in proportion to its size, which has earned it the name 'modern-day sabre-tooth'. Unlike the big cats it can purr, and its pupils close to vertical slits (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range the clouded leopard is a solitary, secretive cat of dense forest, long thought to be mainly nocturnal and arboreal. It is one of the best climbers in the cat family: its hind legs are longer than its front legs, its forearm bones are unfused for extra twisting, and captive animals climb down trunks head first and hang from branches by their hind feet and tail alone. It can jump more than 1.2 m high. Very little is known about its life in the wild, because it is so rarely seen (Wikipedia, general species account).

Camera traps have finally given numbers for India. In Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mizoram, 4,962 trap nights produced 84 photographs of clouded leopards and a density of about 5.1 per 100 km², one of the highest ever recorded for the species (Singh and Macdonald 2017). The same study found its daily activity overlapped most with the Asian golden cat's. Other camera-trap studies have recorded the species in Manas National Park in Assam and Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh. Sightings by visitors remain very rare.

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)