INDONESIAN BORNEO, 17th May 2024 - Orangutan Foundation, together with Tanjung Puting National Park, recently recorded some amazing, rare footage of a family of endangered Bornean clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi borneensis) – a mother and two young infants. To witness a family is extraordinary.
Camera trap research is carried out throughout the forests of Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesian Borneo, to assess species diversity and distributions. Albeit rare, the Bornean clouded leopard has been recorded a few times on camera traps in the National Park, but April 9th was the first time we recorded a mother with two offspring. For the population to be reproducing is an extremely encouraging sign.
Anxious Yoga Perdana, Research Manager, expressed, “The clouded leopard is an arboreal species and excellent hunter on the ground that plays an important role in maintaining the ecosystem. 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.”
Irrespective of camera traps, clouded leopards are very rare to see in the wild. 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 offsprings, and other individuals, to grow up safely and one day reproduce themselves.
For over 30 years, the Orangutan Foundation has been working to save the critically endangered orangutan by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities, and promoting research and education. Orangutan Foundation works in Indonesia under an MoU with The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
Additional information about Orangutan Foundation can be found here.
For further information, please contact:
Stephanie Nolan, Communications and Operations Officer.
Orangutan Foundation, 7 Kent Terrace, London, NW1 4RP
info@orangutan.org.uk / +44 (0)20 7724 2912
