http://www.assamtribune.com/sc...sp?id=jan1918/oth054



Hunter caught with clouded leopard carcass

CORRESPONDENT



ITANAGAR, Jan 18 - A hunter was caught red-handed along with the carcass of an endangered clouded leopard by a village night patrolling team near Old Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Subansiri district last night.A team of All Tajang Youth Association (ATYA), Ziro, which was engaged in night patrolling on Wednesday, found three men coming toward them and when asked to stop, two of them fled from the scene under cover of darkness, leaving one of their accomplices and the carcass of the adult male clouded leopard. The apprehended man, in his early 30’s, and the catch were later handed over to police.
While confirming that ATYA patrolling team had caught a hunter with clouded leopard carcass from Swkhe-bo forest near Old Ziro, police informed that the hunter has been booked under Section 51 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The clouded leopard (Neofelis Nebulosa) is a highly endangered species due to illegal hunting and loss of habitat. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. They are found primarily in the Himalayan region and in India’s North East.

HANG EM HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!

So sad. What a waste of a magnificent and extremely rare animal.

Poacher is the more correct description.

I think clouded leopard are found all over southeast asia and parts of china as well as borneo.

I wonder if they meant snow leopard. IIRC, cloud leopards are found throughout Southeast Asia, especially in jungle areas. BTY, there were a number of full body snow leopard mounts on display at the SCI Convention. I wonder where they came from??

The one snow leopard I saw was like the saber toothed cat mount... basically an artificial mount. The taxidermist I talked with said the fake fur is very realistic at this point, and he uses a fair amount to cover hair slips on cat mounts now.

I asked how it was happening, as I had the same question.

This is definitely clouded leopard & NOT SNOW leopard.

Itanagar is extreme North East state of India - 100% tribal. Only now being opened up to the public but still a lot of restrictions.

This region is all hilly - 1000 feet to 20,000 feet elevation.

Yes you get some snow leopard high up. But the clouded leopards are found in the lower hills.

Clouded leopard in the sub continent range from Eastern Nepal up into Sikkim, Bhutan, North Bengal, parts of Assam, Trippura, Bangladesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh - possibly Manipur. Then into East china, Burma & SE Asia.

In 1991 I visited Nagaland on work and the client who was the son of the local head chief (probably head chief now) ran a very successful business. Well educated in top boarding school & university. His father was also a graduate and a top government officer.

This guy had a captive clouded leopard in a cage. He got it as a cub and raised it.

He used to feed it with chicken from his poultry business.

The whole day it would lie around and at around 5 pm it would start running and jumping in the cage from wall to wall. I felt sad that such a wonderful cat was locked up in a 12 ft X 12ft cage.

http://www.walkthroughindia.co...ouded-leopard-india/

There are a few in that list Namdapha and Manas as well as parts of Bhutan and Nepal which have 4 big cats - tiger, leopard, clouded leopard & snow leopard!

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
The one snow leopard I saw was like the saber toothed cat mount... basically an artificial mount. The taxidermist I talked with said the fake fur is very realistic at this point, and he uses a fair amount to cover hair slips on cat mounts now.

I asked how it was happening, as I had the same question.

I saw 2 mounts that both were extremely detailed and well done. If they were fakes I would be astounded. I think Animal Artistry did one and I don’t recall who did the second. The saber tooth was a very obvious fake and not a particularly good one.