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Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Printable Version

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Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 12-03-2016

This thread is dedicated to the Indochinese Leopards. Share photos, videos, data and all information about these leopards.

The Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is a leopard subspecies that inhabit the dense tropical rainforest of the mainland of the Indochina Peninsula and southern China. Considered extinct in Singapore, like extinct in Vietnam and Laos, nearly extinct in Cambodia and South China, the last populations is from Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, but the distribution remains highly fragmented. "There are plausibly only two major strongholds remaining" - Rostro-García et al., 2016 says - "which we consider priority sites: Peninsular Malaysia, and the Northern Tenasserim Forest Complex. We also identified a small isolated population in eastern Cambodia as a third priority site, because of its uniqueness and high conservation value." 

"The Indochinese Leopard now occurs only in 6.2% of its historical range." (Rostro-García et al., 2016)

In this population, like the Javan Leopards, and sometimes in the Indian Leopards, the melanic form is very common.

Classified "Endangered" by "The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species", the population is estimated in 973–2503 individuals, with only 409–1051 breeding adults specimens. (Rostro-García et al., 2016)

"Increased poaching for the illegal wildlife trade likely is the main factor causing the decline of the Indochinese leopard. Other potential contributing factors include prey declines, habitat destruction, and possibly disease." (Rostro-García et al., 2016)

The deforestation rate in South-east Asia is the highest of all tropical regions, and the rate is still increasing. (Sodhi et al., 2010, Miettinen et al., 2011)

For more information about: 
Endangered leopards: Range collapse of the Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) in Southeast Asia (Rostro-García et al., 2016) - Full Article
Panthera pardus (Leopard) from "The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species"

Some photos about this subspecies:

Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Mondulkiri Protected Forest, Cambodia. Credits to WWF Cambodia.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Mae Wong National Park, Thailand. Credits to WWF Thailand.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Huge male Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Credits to L. Bruce Kekule.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Credits to L. Bruce Kekule.

*This image is copyright of its original author


*This image is copyright of its original author

Female Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) with normal pattern and her melanistic cub on a Sambar (Rusa unicolor) kill, caught with camera trap in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Credits to L. Bruce Kekule.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Melanistic Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) from Kaeng Krachan National Park. Credits to L. Bruce Kekule.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Melanistic Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Mae Wong National Park, Thailand. Credits to WWF Thailand.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Melanistic male Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Malaysia. Photo Credits to DWNP, Panthera, and Rimba.

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 12-13-2016

Melanistic Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) caught with camera trap in Mae Wong National Park, Thailand. Credits to WWF Thailand.

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 12-23-2016

Indochinese Leopard from Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Credits to Mark Andrews.





RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 01-18-2017

From WWF-Thailand:
Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is a leopard subspecies native to mainland Southeast Asia and into southern China, classified as
"Near Threatened" in 2008 by IUCN. In Indochina, leopards are threatened primarily by habitat loss due to deforestation, as well as poaching for the illegal trade. This photo was taken by Luke Stokes at Kaeng Kachan National Park.

*This image is copyright of its original author

RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 01-29-2017

Into the Heart of the Jungle: Tracking the Black Panthers of Malaysia
Posted by Cheryl Lyn Dybas in Cat Watch on January 23, 2017

Black panthers are more common south of Malaysia’s Isthmus of Kra than anywhere else in the world. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody dared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as [the golden jackal] Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than dawn.
—Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

Bagheera is a black panther who serves as friend, protector and mentor to Mowgli, the feral child protagonist of The Jungle Book. Does this black cat of dark rainforests exist outside Kipling’s tale?

Reuben Clements, co-founder of the Malaysian non-profit Rimba (jungle in the Malay language), has found the cat’s hideout.

Clements, who is also a field conservation associate with the international wild cat organization Panthera and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, and his team have been tracking black panthers on the Malay Peninsula south of the Isthmus of Kra. There almost all panthers, or leopards, are black. Nowhere else in the world are there as many black panthers.

Finding black-as-night animals in a dense jungle isn’t easy, however. The panthers’ color obscures the spotted pattern common to all leopards, making it almost impossible to identify individual panthers.

Even with the help of camera traps – cameras wired on trees and left to record passing animals, writes Roland Kays in Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature – it’s a tall order to discern one black panther from another, let alone estimate the animals’ population size.

With the help of camera traps – cameras wired on trees that record passing animals – scientists are finding black panthers in Malaysia’s jungles. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

To study the panthers, Rimba scientists embarked on a project called Black Cloud. It would turn out to be as challenging as the jungle itself.

During the daytime, black panthers are indistinguishable on camera trap images. But with an ingenious trick, Rimba biologists rigged the cameras to detect individual panthers’ spots. That allowed the scientists to come up with a black panther population estimate for one part of the Malay Peninsula.

The effort is none too soon. The panthers’ rainforest habitat is fast disappearing, lost to timber operations that fell rainforest trees standing in the way of oil palm and rubber plantations.

To find out more about black panthers south of Kra, I caught up with Clements as he came out of the rainforest. He kindly answered a few questions.

Every so often, black panthers emerge from Malaysia’s jungles. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

Why are black panthers black?

Their color comes from a genetic mutation that causes an overproduction in the dark pigment melanin, which results in black fur coats.

What’s the difference between a black panther and a black leopard?

The term black panther refers to any melanistic [dark-colored] individual in the cat genus Panthera. In Asia, the term black panther refers to a black leopard. In the Americas, a black panther is usually a black jaguar.

Researchers are shedding light on the status of black panthers in Malaysia’s deep jungles. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

Why is the Malay Peninsula important to black panthers? Does being black give the panthers an advantage in a dark jungle habitat?

The Malay Peninsula is home to the largest population in the world of black panthers. Some believe that black panthers are better concealed than lighter-colored leopards in the dense canopies of the region’s rainforests. Therefore, black panthers are more effective at stalking prey.

Black panthers’ dark color provides them with camouflage in the jungle. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

Why are black panthers common on the peninsula, but nowhere else?

No one really knows. Apart from the camouflage theory, another theory is that a leopard population crash in the region may have left a few surviving individuals that, by chance, happened to be black. This population crash would have created what’s called a founder effect, whereby the genes of these few individuals, or founders, would have been passed on to their offspring. But I think camouflage is the most likely reason.

How significant is the ecological transition zone that exists at the Malay Peninsula’s northern end, the Isthmus of Kra?

The Isthmus of Kra, which is only 44 kilometers [27.4 miles] long at its narrowest point, is where a transition between Indochinese and Sundaic fauna occurs, linked with a change from moist deciduous forest in the north to wet evergreen rainforest toward the Malay Peninsula in the south. North of the isthmus, there are more spotted leopards, and south of it, more black leopards, or panthers.

Why did you and your colleagues choose camera traps to estimate the panthers’ abundance on the peninsula?

You need lots of luck to see a panther in the rainforest! That’s why scientists need to place hundreds of camera traps that run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the panthers’ habitat. When an animal walks past a camera trap, its body heat and movement trigger the camera trap to snap photos.

With an ingenious method, biologists are using remote cameras to track black panthers. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

How many black leopards live in your study area?

Through the camera trap data, we were able to get an estimate of population size, which we believe is three black panthers per 100 square kilometers [38.6 miles].

Was any special camera trap technology needed to record black panthers on camera trap photos?

Yes, we needed the “technology” of sticky-tack [adhesive putty]! The camera traps take color photos of panthers when their sensors detect certain light levels.

When there’s low light, the sensors tell the camera traps to release bursts of infrared light, which illuminate black panthers’ spots. We needed to place sticky-tack on the light sensors to trick the cameras into believing it was dark even in daylight, so the infrared sensors would fire all day long. Then we could detect the spot patterns of individual panthers in a dense jungle, letting us see how many panthers there are.

Monoculture plantations are gnawing into the kingdom of the black panther. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

What threats do the Malay Peninsula’s black panthers face?

Habitat loss and poaching are the biggest threats to black panthers. They’re also the main threats to the region’s other big cats – tigers and clouded leopards. For them and all the species of the jungle, we’re very concerned about the loss of rainforests to oil palm and rubber plantations.

A highway runs through the Kenyir Wildlife Corridor, where many black panthers live. (Photograph: Rimba)

*This image is copyright of its original author

What’s next in your research on black panthers?

We’re focusing on monitoring black panthers’ population trends, and assisting the Malaysian government in improving rainforest protection programs and anti-poaching law enforcement efforts. The cats’ coats are unfortunately popular with poachers. A highway also bisects an area known as the Kenyir Wildlife Corridor, where many black panthers live. We’re working to set aside this wildlife corridor as a protected area.

Why is your organization named Rimba?

We’re Rimba because our research contributes to rainforest protection. And because we all need a jungle out there.

For more about Rimba, please see: https://rimbaresearch.org/.

The jungles of Tembat Forest Reserve around Lake Kenyir are a stronghold for black panthers in Malaysia. (Photograph: Anuar McAfee)

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 02-18-2017

Indochinese Leopard caught with camera trap in Mae Wong National Park, Thailand. Credits to WWF Thailand.

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 04-14-2017

Indochinese leopard from Nam Et-Phou Louey, Laos. Credits to WCS Laos.

"The Leopard is the second largest wild cat in Laos. Once thought to be common, records are now rare in most areas of the country. Illegal trade of prey (wild deer and pigs) and of leopards (selling their skin or their bones for medicine) is threatening their survival."

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 07-24-2017

Indochinese Leopard from Mae Wong National Park, Thailand. Credits to WWF Thailand.

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 11-05-2017

Spot the difference: Researchers use infrared light to ID Malaysia's rare black leopards
BY EARTH TOUCH NEWS JULY 14 2015

Whether you're a researcher monitoring snow leopards in the Himalayas, their Amur relatives in Russia or their cousins on the African savannahs, the unique spot patterns on a leopard's coat are often the key to telling individual cats apart. Unless you're dealing with a "spotless" cat, that is.

Until recently, that problem that has been standing in the way of a group of researchers studying the leopards on the Malay Peninsula – where almost all of the big cats are jet black. "Not only is this a unique phenomenon for leopards, it is also possibly the only place in the world where an entire animal population is almost completely composed of the melanistic [black] form of a species," the researchers write in a study just published in the Journal of Wildlife Management.

Image: James Cook University/Bill Laurance

*This image is copyright of its original author

When it comes to solitary and elusive animals like leopards, camera traps – which take a photo when the camera's sensor recognises movement or body heat – offer researchers an effective, non-invasive and affordable way of monitoring populations. Because each leopard has a unique spot pattern, researchers can ID individual cats from their camera trap photos, helping them estimate the population size of a species.

But camera traps weren't doing much good for the scientists tracking Malaysia's extremely rare black leopards: the cats' dark colouration made their spots virtually invisible in photos. The solution to this spotty dilemma turns out to have been pretty simple: jerry-rigging cameras in order to illuminate the leopards' hidden spots with infrared light.

“Most automatic cameras have an infrared flash, but it’s only activated at night”, explains Dr Gopalasamy Reuben Clements of Australia's James Cook University. “However, by blocking the camera’s light sensor, we can fool the camera into thinking it’s night even during the day, so it always flashes.”

The researchers found that by relying on images where an infrared flash had been used to reveal the leopards' rosette markings, they could accurately identify 94% of the cats in the north east of Peninsular Malaysia. Now, they hope the new method will help them assess leopard populations in other parts of the cats' range.  

Image: James Cook University/Bill Laurance

*This image is copyright of its original author

Image: James Cook University/Bill Laurance

*This image is copyright of its original author

Image: James Cook University/Bill Laurance

*This image is copyright of its original author

The hope is that accurate population data will inform future conservation efforts – and that's crucial for these rare and threatened cats. Not only is their habitat being swallowed up by palm and rubber plantations, but the leopards are also increasingly targeted by poachers.

“Many dead leopards bearing injuries inflicted by wire snares have been discovered in Malaysia,” warns James Cook University's Professor William Laurance. Leopard skins and body parts are also increasingly finding their way to wildlife trading markets in places such as the Myanmar-China border.

"Understanding how leopards are faring in an increasingly human-dominated world is vital," adds Laurie Hedges from the University of Nottingham in Malaysia, who was the lead author of the study. "This new approach gives us a novel tool to help save this unique and endangered animal."

RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 12-13-2017

Photo and information credits: Paul Thompson
"One of Kaeng Krachan's fabulous leopards. Whenever we photograph a big cat it still leaves me in awe of the magnificence of Thailand's National Parks. เสือดาวแก้งกระจาน"

*This image is copyright of its original author

RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Ngala - 01-08-2018

Melanistic Indochinese Leopard caught with camera trap in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand.





RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Jeffrey - 03-04-2018



RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Shir Babr - 07-08-2018

Kenyir Wildlife Corridor, Malaysia.

*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Lycaon - 01-31-2019

Some indochina leopards

Source https://www.facebook.com/seubsarn/?ref=py_c


*This image is copyright of its original author



*This image is copyright of its original author



*This image is copyright of its original author


RE: Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) - Luipaard - 04-13-2019

Impressive male from Nepal, notice the fairly small skull.


*This image is copyright of its original author