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Indochinese leopard
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Indochinese leopard
The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is a leopard subspecies native to mainland Southeast Asia and southern China. In Indochina, leopards are rare outside protected areas and threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation as well as poaching for the illegal wildlife trade. In 2016, the population was previously thought to comprise 973–2,503 mature individuals, with only 409–1,051 breeding adults. The historical range had decreased by more than 90%. However, as of 2019, it is estimated that there are 77-766 mature Indochinese leopards and that their numbers are decreasing.
Panthera pardus delacouri was described in 1930 by Reginald Innes Pocock based on a leopard skin from Annam.
Pocock described an Indochinese leopard skin as almost rusty-red in ground colour but paler at the sides. It had small rosettes that were mostly 3.8 cm × 3.8 cm (1.5 in × 1.5 in) in diameter and so closely set that it looked dark. The fur was short with less than 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long hair on the back. He commented to have seen only black leopards from Johor and other areas in the Malay Peninsula exhibited in menageries. He therefore assumed that the proportion of black leopards increases farther south.
Records from camera trapping studies conducted at 22 locations in southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia between 1996 and 2009 show that Indochinese leopards recorded north of the Kra Isthmus are predominantly spotted. South of the Isthmus, only melanistic leopards were recorded. Melanism is quite common in dense tropical forest habitat, and black leopards are thought to have a selective advantage for ambush.
The Indochinese leopard is distributed in Southeast Asia, where today small populations remain only in Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Cambodia and southern China.
In Myanmar's Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, the leopard population declined so drastically between the 1940s and 1980s, that by 2000 it was estimated as being close to locally extinct. In 2015, leopards were recorded for the first time by camera traps in the hill forests of Karen State. The Northern Tenasserim Forest Complex on the Thailand-Myanmar border was considered a stronghold in 2016.
In Thailand, the Indochinese leopard is present in the Western Forest Complex, Kaeng Krachan-Kui Buri and Khlong Saeng-Khao Sok protected area complexes. But since the turn of the 21st century, it has not been recorded any more in the northern and south-central forest complexes of the country. In Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary on the Thai-Malaysian border, only two leopards walked past camera traps deployed between October 2004 and October 2007.
In Malaysia, the leopard is present in Belum-Temengor, Taman Negara and Endau-Rompin National Parks. In April 2010, a spotted leopard was seen in a camera trap in Taman Negara National Park, where previously only black leopards were thought to occur. It has also been recorded in secondary forests in Selangor and Johor states.
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Indochinese leopard
The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is a leopard subspecies native to mainland Southeast Asia and southern China. In Indochina, leopards are rare outside protected areas and threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation as well as poaching for the illegal wildlife trade. In 2016, the population was previously thought to comprise 973–2,503 mature individuals, with only 409–1,051 breeding adults. The historical range had decreased by more than 90%. However, as of 2019, it is estimated that there are 77-766 mature Indochinese leopards and that their numbers are decreasing.
Panthera pardus delacouri was described in 1930 by Reginald Innes Pocock based on a leopard skin from Annam.
Pocock described an Indochinese leopard skin as almost rusty-red in ground colour but paler at the sides. It had small rosettes that were mostly 3.8 cm × 3.8 cm (1.5 in × 1.5 in) in diameter and so closely set that it looked dark. The fur was short with less than 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long hair on the back. He commented to have seen only black leopards from Johor and other areas in the Malay Peninsula exhibited in menageries. He therefore assumed that the proportion of black leopards increases farther south.
Records from camera trapping studies conducted at 22 locations in southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia between 1996 and 2009 show that Indochinese leopards recorded north of the Kra Isthmus are predominantly spotted. South of the Isthmus, only melanistic leopards were recorded. Melanism is quite common in dense tropical forest habitat, and black leopards are thought to have a selective advantage for ambush.
The Indochinese leopard is distributed in Southeast Asia, where today small populations remain only in Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Cambodia and southern China.
In Myanmar's Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, the leopard population declined so drastically between the 1940s and 1980s, that by 2000 it was estimated as being close to locally extinct. In 2015, leopards were recorded for the first time by camera traps in the hill forests of Karen State. The Northern Tenasserim Forest Complex on the Thailand-Myanmar border was considered a stronghold in 2016.
In Thailand, the Indochinese leopard is present in the Western Forest Complex, Kaeng Krachan-Kui Buri and Khlong Saeng-Khao Sok protected area complexes. But since the turn of the 21st century, it has not been recorded any more in the northern and south-central forest complexes of the country. In Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary on the Thai-Malaysian border, only two leopards walked past camera traps deployed between October 2004 and October 2007.
In Malaysia, the leopard is present in Belum-Temengor, Taman Negara and Endau-Rompin National Parks. In April 2010, a spotted leopard was seen in a camera trap in Taman Negara National Park, where previously only black leopards were thought to occur. It has also been recorded in secondary forests in Selangor and Johor states.
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