Felis chaus: Observations of the Jungle Cat in by the lower reaches of the Jordan River, Jordan.

The Jungle Cat, Felis chaus, is a medium-sized Felid found in wetlands across the Middle East, Caucasus region, South and Southeast Asia, and southern China. It is not currently considered globally threatened, but is known to be in decline across its range due to the ongoing loss of wetland habitats. In Jordan the species is currently considered to be Critically Endangered, with the last known record of the species being two dead specimens found in February 1998, on Al–Baqurah Island in the Yarmouk River Valley. However, much of the key environment for the species is found along the Jordan Valley, much of which has been designated a military zone with very limited access.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 July 2024, freelance conservationists Ehab Eid and Mohammed Farid Alayyan of Amman in Jordan present new evidence for the presence of the Jungle Cat in the Jordan Valley of Jordan, based upon camara trap evidence gathered during a survey targeting the Golden Jackal, Canis aureus.

The camera traps were placed on a private farm growing Citrus fruit at Sheikh Hussein, in the north of the Ghor region, between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The boundaries of the farm extend to the Jordan River, where there is an area of wetlands dominated by Common Reeds Phragmites communis, Cattails, Typha domingensis, and Athel Trees, Tamarix aphylla. The area is also home to other wetland Plants, including Sieber’s Wormwood, Artemisia sieberi, Christ’s Thorn Jujube, Ziziphus spina-christi,  Arabian  Fagonia, Fagonia  arabica,  and  Common  Mallow, Malva sylvestris. The area is an important refuge for migratory Birds such as Ducks, Herons, Egrets, and Storks, but is not subject to any form of protection, with the water being affected by herbicide and fertilizer run-off from local farms, and Reed-beds subjected to frequent clearing by farmers who perceive them as a fire-hazard.

Eid and Alayyan placed four camera traps in the Reed beds between June 2020 and 28 February 2022. There were mounted between 40 and 50 cm above the ground, and faced both north and south, to avoid false records during  sunrise  and  sunset. No bait was placed, and the cameras were checked monthly.

During this period, five observations of Jungle Cats were made, with all four cameras making observations. The first observation was made on 12 January 2021 at 12.58 in the afternoon, the second on 17 January 2021 at 9.33 in the evening, the third on 11 April 2021 at 21.35 in the evening, the forth on 3 September 2021 at 10.41 in the evening, and the final observation on 30 January 2022 at 2.12 in the morning.

Jungle Cats photographed in the study area between 12 January 2021 and 30 January 2022. Ehab Eid in Eid & Alayyan (2024).

The camera traps also imaged several other species, including Golden Jackal, Canis aureus, Egyptian Mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, Wild Boar, Sus scrofa, Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, and numerous Rodents and Birds, as well as four feral Dogs living on the farm.

To the best of Eid and Alayyan's knowledge, this is the first camera trap survey carried out in the Jordan Valley, and has established the presence of the Jungle Cat in Jordan 22 years after the previous  record, of dead Animals, although the data gathered was not sufficient to determine the number of Cats in the area.

Despite the heavy agricultural activity in the area, it appears to remain a suitable environment for Jungle Cats, with dense vegetation along riverbeds and an abundant supply of Rodents, the favoured prey of Cats.

Jungle Cats were only observed a very limited time, despite the long duration of the study, although this is at least in part due to the dense vegetation in the study area, which proved a general hindrance to observations, interfering with observations of Animals and producing numerous observations of swaying Plants. However, Eid and Alayyan suggest that it is this dense vegetation which makes the environment suitable for Jungle Cats, which are known to be averse to encounters with Humans. 

While Jungle Cats are still persisting in the Jordan Valley, their habitat is threatened by Human activities, with agricultural expansion altering the environment, causing the Reed-beds to fragment and degrade. 

During the time when the study was being carried out, a Jungle Cat was also recorded at Al-Mashare’e, about 6 km to the south of the study area, where it became entangled in a Chicken-protection net, being videoed before escaping. Based upon this, Eid and Alayyan propose that a citizen-science approach, in which residents of the Jordan Valley are encouraged to report sightings of Jungle Cats, may reveal more about the presence of, and threats faced by, the species in the region.

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Photographic evidence for the presence of Snow Leopards in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Snow Leopards, Panthera uncia, are the least well understood of the Big Cats, due to their secretive habits and the remote and inhospitable environments in which they live. The species is currently considered to be Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, although our poor understanding of the species numbers and distribution makes this largely a guess. There thought to be about 400-700 Snow Leopards in India (about 2% of the global population), inhabiting the sub-alpine, alpine and trans-Himalayan regions of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Within Kashmir, Snow Leopards are known from Gurez and Sonamarg, the upper Baltal-Zojila region, the Kargil Range, and the areas adjacent to the north-eastern and south-eastern boundary of Kishtwar that connect with the Zanskar range in the Union Territory of Ladakh. In other parts of Kashmir, including many protected areas, the presence of Snow Leopards is uncertain.

In a paper published in the journal Oryx on 9 May 2024, Oyndrila Sanyal of the Wildlife Biology Laboratory at the University of Kashmir, Tawqir Bashir, also of the Wildlife Biology Laboratory at the University of Kashmir, and of the Division of Wildlife Sciences at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, and Monaj Rana and Pankaj Chandan of the Nature, Wildlife and Climate Change Division of the National Development Foundation, present the results of camara-trap survey for Snow Leopards carried out in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kishtwar High Altitude National Park covers an area of 2191 km², at altitudes ranging from 1800 m and 6000 m, between the Chenab River and the Nagin Sheer Glacier. The park borders Ladakh to the northeast and Himachal Pradesh to the south. Most areas in the park above an altitude of about 4300 m are essentially inaccessible, due to the rugged nature of the terrain and the hostile climate. The wide range of altitudes in the park, combined with similar variations in slope and moisture availability, lead to the presence of a wide range of vegetation types. The park supports thousands of nomadic herders, and is home to a number of temples, which draw large numbers of pilgrims. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Snow Leopards may be present in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, with claims of a possible sighting as well as several reports of tracks, although none of these has been photographed or confirmed by scientists.

Sanyal et al. divided the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park into a grid of 5 km x 5 km cells. Camera-traps were placed at 57 locations in 18 cells for a year, between May 2022 and June 2023. Up to four cameras were placed in a single cell, concentrating on natural trails, trail junctions, ridge lines and other locations likely to be used by Carnivores. Cameras were checked once a month (except in winter) to ensure they were working, and replace their memory cards. All of the camera-traps were placed in the southern, south-western and central areas of the park; the northern, north-eastern, eastern and south-eastern regions being above 4500 m and largely covered by glaciers.

The study area, showing the location of camera-trap stations and the new Snow Leopard, Panthera uncia, occurrence records in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India, and three earlier records in the adjacent landscape. Sanyal et al. (2024).

At 11.03 pm local time on 19 September 2022, a camera-trap located Kiyar catchment of the Dacchan range at 3280 m above sealevel captured an image of two Snow Leopards. This was the first photographic evidence ever obtained for the species being present in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park. During the remainder of the survey, seven further images were obtained in three other grid squares, in the Kiyar and Nanth catchments of the Dacchan Range and the Renai catchment of the Marwah Range. Of the eight images captured, four were taken at night and four in the day. Based upon their patterns (which are unique to individual Leopards), at least four different members of the species were observed. All of the images were taken at altitudes of between 3004 m and 3878 m, in an arid alpine region above the treelike, with a steep and rugged terrain flanked by high-altitude pastures of Junipers, Grasses and Legumes on rolling hills.

Camera-trap photographic records of the Snow Leopard, Panthera uncia, in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India; (a) is the first camera-trap record, on 19 September 2022, with two individuals. Sanyal et al.  (2024).

Sanyal et al. also recorded the presence of Siberian Ibex and Himalayan Musk Deer in the same areas are the Snow Leopards, as well as Long-tailed Marmots, and Pika, all of which could serve as potential prey species. The most frequently recorded of these species was the Siberian Ibex. A number of other Carnivore species were also recorded, including Himalayan Brown Bear, Asian Black Bear, Red Fox, Leopard Cat, Yellow-throated Marten, and Mountain Weasel. The Red Fox was the overall most frequently imaged Animal in the study, but this is probably because the cameras were positioned to detect Carnivores; it is not suggested that Carnivores are more common than prey Animals.

Sanyal et al. note that the area is under considerable pressure from Human activities, with about 3000 herders regularly visiting the alpine pastures in the Marwah Range, bringing with them about 150 000 head of livestock. This many domestic Animals presents a threat to the prey species relied on by the Snow Leopards, and therefore the Leopards themselves. This could potentially lead to Human-Leopard conflict if the Leopards respond to a shortage of prey by targeting livestock, or to the Leopards being excluded from pasturelands and forced to depend on less optimal environments. The camara-trap evidence suggests that both the Leopards and their prey species tend to avoid livestock grazing areas during summer (May-August) which could mean that anthropogenic pressures are already affecting them. 

The Kishtwar High Altitude National Park is clearly a habitat utilised by Snow Leopards, potentially providing a bridge between three other important Snow Leopard habitats, the greater Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir, the trans-Himalayas of Ladakh,  and the lesser Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh. This implies that the park is important to Snow Leopard conservation efforts in India, and globally. To this end, Sanyal et al. recommend a more comprehensive study of Snow Leopards in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park is carried out, including areas such as the Paddar and Wadwan valleys, which were missed in their study.

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Panthera tigris sondaica: A possible sighting of the 'extinct' Javan Tiger.

Indonesia was once home to three species of Tiger, the Sumatran Tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae, the Javan Tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, and the Bali Tiger, Panthera tigris balica. Two of these species  have been declared extinct in the past twenty years, the Javan Tiger in 2008, and the Bali Tiger in 2013, using the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's criteria of not having been observed in more than 30 years; the last confirmed sighting of a Javan Tiger happened in 1976 in Meru Betiri National Park, East Java.

The Javan Tiger was endemic to Java, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was frequently encountered in lowland forests, thickets, and even gardens on the island. However, it was widely seen as a pest (Tigers will feed on both livestock and Humans), leading to widespread hunting of the species, and its presumed extinction in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The last systematic search for the species deployed 35 camera traps in the Meru Betiri National Park in 1999-2000, but made no observations.

A Javan Tiger observed in Ujung Kulon Nature Reserve (now Ujung Kulon National Park) in 1938. Andries Hoogerwerf/Wikimedia Commons.

Although there have been no confirmed sightings since 1976, rumours of the species' continued existence persist, with numerous unconfirmed sightings, reports of footprints too large to belong to a Leopard, and even reports of attacks on livestock. 

In a paper published in the journal Oryx on 21 March 2024, Wirdateti Wirdateti of the Research Center for Biosystematics and Evolution of the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency, Yulianto Yulianto of the Research Center for Applied Zoology of the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency, Kalih Raksasewu of the Yayasan Bentang Edukasi Lestari Bogor Foundation, and Bambang Adriyanto of the Cikepuh Wildlife Reserve, describe a possible sighting of a living Javan Tiger, and the results of an investigation which followed it.

On 18 August 2019, Ripi Yanur Fajar, a local resident and conservationist, reported seeing a Javan Tiger close to the village of Cipendeuy in South Sukabumi Forest, West Java, to Kalih Raksasewu, who visited the site the next day, along with Bambang Adriyanto. Ripi Yanur Fajar described the Tiger as having jumped a fence between a village road and a plantation, and examination of this fence by Raksasewu and Adriyanto led to the discovery of a single hair, which could potentially have come from a Tiger.

The hair recovered by Kalih Raksasewu and Bambang Adriyanto from a fence in Cipendeuy Village, West Java. Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency.

A genetic analysis was subsequently carried out in which DNA from the hair was compared to DNA from Sumatran Tigers, Bengal Tigers, Amur Tigers, Javan Leopards, and a museum specimen of the Javan Tiger, from Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, collected in 1930. The hair was found to show a 4.2% difference to the Leopard sample, differences of between 3.7% and 4.1% from the Sumatran, Bengal, and Amur Tigers, but only a 0.3%d difference from the Javan Tiger museum specimen.

Wirdateti et al. stop short of claiming that they have proof that the Javan Tiger still exists on the basis of a single hair, but do believe that the hair comes from a member of the species, and that this merits further investigation into the possibility of a surviving population of these Tigers in West Java.

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Authorities in Kelantan State, Malaysia, begin capturing wild Tigers after a spate of attacks.

Authorities in Kelantan State, Peninsula Malaysia have begun capturing wild Malaysian Tigers, Panthera tigris jacksoni, following a series of attacks on workers and others on Rubber plantations in the northeast of the country. Traps have been set in forests close to plantations, with two Tigers captured to date, both of which have been sent to a wildlife sanctuary.

A Tiger captured in a trap set by wildlife rangers in Gua Musang, Kelantan. Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department.

The first death occurred on 9 May 2023, when Halim Asin, a member of the Orang Asli indigenous community, was attacked while fishing on the Sg Aring River with his nephew, and later found dead. On 5 October, when another Orang Asli man, Pisie Amud, 25, was attacked and killed why on a fishing trip in the Pos Pasik Forest. On 10 November, Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, an Indonesian migrant worker employed as a rubber tapper on a rubber plantation in Kuala Wok near Pos Pasik. The following day, another migrant worker, Ahka Soe Ya, 22, from Myanmar, was attacked by a Tiger while working on Rubber plantation in Kampung Meranto alongside his wife. He was taken to hospital by four Myanmar nationals, thought to be his wife and their friends, but died of injuries to his head and neck. Between 2017 and 2022 only four Tiger attacks were recorded in the state, two of which were fatal.

Police officers recovering the body of Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, who was killed in an apparent Tiger attack on a Rubber plantation in Kuala Wok. New Straits Times/Royal Malaysian Police.

The attacks have been blamed upon male Tigers roaming in search of and mates, or else young Tigers learning to hunt and looking for territories of their own. However, it is likely that a change in forest use by Humans in the region is as much to blame. Since the 1980s logging in Malaysian forest reserves has been selective, with loggers only allowed to remove certain trees, leaving the essential structure of the forest unchanged. This changed in 2007 when a new government policy has allowed for the clearing of areas of natural forest for plantation forestry, in which trees are grown on a cycle of felling and replanting. These plantations typically comprise monocultures of trees such as Rubber, Acacia and Eucalyptus, which support far less wildlife than natural forests, providing less food for Tigers, and causing them to roam further afield, and consider non-preferred food items, such as Humans.

Newly planted trees on a plantation in Kelantan, following a cycle of clearing. Malaysialand.

The status of Malaysian Tigers is subject to some dispute. The population in Peninsula Malaysia, which comprises about 200 adult individuals, has been considered to be a separate subspecies, Panthera tigris jacksoni (sometimes Panthera tigris malayensis) since 2004, with that subspecies regarded as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. However, it is also argued that Malaysian Tigers are not sufficiently distinct to merit this status and that they should be regarded as a population of the Asian Tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, which is regarded as Endangered, a lower threat of extinction, with a much larger population, found from Malaysia to Siberia.

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Survey reveals 27% growth in Bhutan's Tiger population.

A survey carried out by the Forest and Park Services Department of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2021-22 has found that the current population of adult Bengal Tigers, Panthera tigris tigris, in the country is 131, a 27% increase since the last such survey was carried out in 2015. The species appears to be breeding at different altitudes within the country, suggesting that the increase in population is related to a genuine ecological recovery.

A Tiger imaged by a camara trap in Bhutan during the 2021-22 survey. Forest and Park Services Department of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

Tigers are currently considered to be Endangered under the terms of terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, with the global population estimated to have declined between 53% and 68% between 1996 and 2014, and a range contraction of more than 50% during the past three generations. Tigers are solitary Big Cats requiring large territories and a supply of suitable prey, ideally Deer or Wild Pigs, to survive. As such they are highly vulnerable to habitat loss, as well as conflict with Humans, as many farmed Animals fall within the prey-size range of Tigers.

The current and former range of the Tiger. IUCN Cat Specialist Group.

Tigers were once found in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, however, they are now extinct in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Pakistan, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, and Nepal have implemented rigorous monitoring and conservation plans for Tigers since the last ICUN assessment of the global population in 2015, with Bhutan, India, and Nepal all subsequently reporting rises in their Tiger populations.

A family of Tigers imaged by a camara trap in Bhutan during the 2021-22 survey. Forest and Park Services Department of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

The conservation of large predatory Animals such as Tigers is very much dependent on the co-operation of local populations. Tigers are known to take a large number of domestic Animals as prey in Bhutan, but the number of reprisal attacks is surprisingly low. Some of this can be attributed to a culture of respect for nature, however, a survey carried out by the World Wildlife Fund in Trongsa District, which lies entirely within the Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park in the northeast of the country, found that people were concerned by the rise in the Tiger population, citing fears about livestock losses, and reporting that living close to the Big Cats is in itself stressful. The government of Bhutan has established Tiger Conservation Committees in several parts of the country, to encourage stewardship of the species, manage Human-Tiger conflicts, and provide livestock insurance, and the World Wildlife Fund is urging the government to set up more such committees, as well as planning to carry out similar surveys in other parts of the country.

A representative of the World Wildlife Fund interviewing a villager about attitudes to Tigers in Trogsa District, Nepal. Tashi Phuntsho/WWF-Bhutan.

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Investigating the illegal trade in Clouded Leopards.

The Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardi, and Indochinese Clouded Leopard, Neofelis nebulosa, are medium-sized Felids native to tropical South and Southeast Asia. The Indochinese Clouded Leopard is found from Nepal, through Southeast Asia as far east as Vietnam and south into the Malay Peninsula, while the Sunda Clouded Leopard is found on Borneo and Sumatra. 

Both species are thought to be primarily arboreal, inhabiting tropical forests across their range, particularly lowland Dipterocarp forests, though limestone forests, upland tropical evergreen and deciduous forest, lowland seasonal and mixed deciduous forest, and peat swamp forest, all also appear to be suitable habitats. They can also survive to a degree in fragmented forests and forests with selective logging, but not Oil Palm plantations or similar environments. They are threatened by deforestation, indiscriminate hunting techniques such as hunting, as well as targeted hunting for their skins or other body parts. Both species are listed under Appendix I of the CITES Treaty, which bans trade in either live animals of their body-parts without a permit from the government of a country which forms part of the natural range. 

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 June 2023, Anthony Giordano and Leah Winstead of the Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study, Muhammed Ali Imron, also of the Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study, and of the Department of Forest Resource Conservation at Universitas Gadjah, Rustem, again of the Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study, and of the Wildlife Ecology and Biodiversity Laboratory at Mulawarman University, Jephte Sompud of the Agroforestry and Forest Plantation Program at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jayaraj Vijaya Kumaran again of the Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study, and of the Faculty of Earth Science at the  Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, and Kurtis Jai-Chyi Pei, once again of the Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study, and of the Institute of Wildlife Conservation at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, present the results of an investigation into the trade in Clouded Leopards, and their body parts, inspired by a social media post about a Sunda Clouded Leopard being kept by an exotic pet dealer in Indonesia in 2019.

Screen grab of a ‘pet’ Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi on Facebook in Indonesia. Giordano et al. (2023).

Giordano et al. subsequently discovered a number of social media and local language news articles concerning the trade in Clouded Leopards, apparently without concern to the laws and government policies regulating this trade. On the basis of this, they believe that there is an active illegal trade in Sunda Clouded Leopards in Indonesia. A number of these reports included photographs of Clouded Leopards in small cages, of a kind often used at wildlife markets in Indonesia. They also discovered one incident involving an Indochinese Clouded Leopard, which was confiscated at the border between Thailand and Myanmar, having apparently been sourced from Laos. 

Screen grabs of Facebook postings: (a) Wildlife seized by Jakarta Police, including a Sunda Clouded Leopard and a Sun Bear. ( b) A posting purportedly showing a Sunda Clouded Leopard kitten for sale in Europe. Giordano et al. (2023).

Other recent studies of the trade in Clouded Leopard and wild Carnivores in general have indicated a change in the purpose for which these species are hunted, with their apparently becoming more specifically targeted for commercial reasons. Giordano et al.'s work builds upon this, providing evidence of Sunda Leopards being actively traded in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Other species which have not historically been traded as live Animals also appear to be entering the exotic pet trade, including Small-clawed Otters, Aonyx cinereus, Smooth-coated  Otters, Lutrogale perspicillata, and Otter Civets, Cynogale bennettii. This trade appears to be at least in part driven by popular social media posts depicting these Animals as interesting 'novelty pets'. 

Two Clouded Leopards confiscated by Thai authorities en route from Laos. Here they are being temporarily cared for by the local zoo. Terry Whittaker in Giordano et al. (2023).

Interestingly, Giordano et al. only came a across a single instance of trade in the Indochinese Clouded Leopard. This is surprising, as there is known to be an active trade in other Felid species, such as Leopards and Tigers in Southeast Asia, and may indicate that the trade exists and has not been detected by this study.

The trade in large Felids has its origins in traditional practices in some parts of the world, for example in the Middle East, where Cheetahs have long been captured for use as hunting Animals, but the trade in Clouded Leopards in Indonesia appears to be a new development, and may be linked to opportunistic hunting. Widespread deforestation in Borneo has led to more conflict between Humans and forest species, and the killing of (aggressive) adult female Clouded Leopards could well result in kittens becoming available for trade as a biproduct. Whatever the source of the Animals being traded, their normalization as an exotic pets is clearly an additional threat to the species, as well as potentially to Humans handling them.

Giordano et al. recommend that governments and conservation organisations pay more attention to this trade, and focus more attention on monitoring and combating the illegal trade in Clouded Leopards. They also note the dangers to public health caused by the trade in exotic pets, observing that wild Felids are known to have the ability to carry a variety of infections potentially harmful to Humans, including Coronaviruses.

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