The Javan leopard Panthera pardus melas is one of three critically endangered leopard subspecies. Despite threats from severe habitat fragmentation and isolation,the magnitude of Javan leopard removal from its natural habitats might have been overlooked by the Indonesian authorities and conservation practitioners. Here we describe the magnitude of Javan leopard removals using unofficial data collated between 2007 and 2019. Over the past 13 years, an average of 4.6 leopards were removed from their natural habitats due to illegal trade and conflict incidents annually. With an estimate of some 500 wild Javan leopards remaining range-wide,this number is alarming as it may represent a minimum number of leopard removals.We, therefore, urge the management authorities to take immediate actions to strengthen the protection of Javan leopard from further loss due to both official and unofficial removals.

In this work we present the first confirmed record of the clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa and the marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata from Phou Hin Poun National Protected Area NPA (formerly known as Khammouan Limestone National Biodiversity Conservation Area) in Khammouane province, Lao PDR. This was the first time that any camera trap survey had been conducted in Phou Hin Poun NPA.

In a five-year wildlife camera trapping survey from January 2014 to 2020, including a one year hiatus in 2018, in Virachey National Park VNP in north-east Cambodia turned up records of the ‘standard four’ evergreen felines: mainland clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, Asiatic golden cat Catopuma temminckii, and leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis. Most wild felid species– with the exception of leopard cat – are in decline throughout Indochina (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos). The main reasons for these declines are economic development and infrastructure projects that shrink forest habitats, as well as poaching for the illegal wildlife trade from an unprecedented snaring crisis that has engulfed the region’s protected areas and other forested areas. Despite these considerable threats, VNP retains the ‘standard four’ wild cats and continued monitoring shows that these species persist in the park. The park could be an Indochinese stronghold for these four felid species.

Supporting Online Material

Figure F1

During the last 20 years, the Amur leopard Panthera pardus orientalis population has increased from 30–35 to 100 individuals. Despite this positive trend, a long-term isolation has led to inbreeding and correlates start to show up. Here we report the observation of four Amur leopards with a short tail. The spread of this defect requires urgent genetic research and remedy.

The latest assessment of the Pallas’s cat or manul Otocolobus manul status for the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ proposed a revised categorisation of the species from Near Threatened to Least Concern. This downlisting was recommended based on better information about the geographic distribution, habitat loss and fragmentation, and population size of the manul across its global range. The recategorisation of manul indicates that, based on the best available data, the species faces a lower risk of extinction than previously thought, and is therefore welcomed. However, the proposed downlisting is a result of improved knowledge of the status of the manul, rather than any successful conservation interventions. We argue that many local populations of the manul are highly susceptible to human-induced threats, and any funding should focus on these local threat statuses.

We report a recent record of the tiger Panthera tigris from the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, India, where the species has become functionally extinct. After a confirmed record of a tiger in 2011, this recent photographic record in 2018 confirms its first re-appearance in the reserve, encouraging the on-going recovery efforts.

We report here the highest elevation record from the Western Himalayas of India and provide photographic evidence of the occurrence of a tiger Panthera tigris in Kedarnath Musk Deer Sanctuary, Uttarakhand, India. The tiger was captured on a camera trap at an elevation of 3,431 m in May 2019.

We assessed the roles of space use and habitat selection in fostering coexistence of large felids using sympatric radio-collared tigers Panthera tigris and leopards P. pardus. We found that intraspecific spatial overlap was 2 to 17 times lower than interspecific overlap and variation in habitat preference was greater between individuals than between species. These results imply that in certain contexts tigers and leopard coexist despite interspecific similarities in space use and habitat selection.

The clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa is an elusive species primarily found in the foothills of the Himalayas and in South-east Asia. For the first time, the species was recorded from Kaziranga National Park, in Assam, India, an area dominated by alluvial grasslands and forests on the banks of the Brahmaputra River. Documenting the presence of clouded leopard in this novel habitat attests the importance of maintaining corridors, as the individuals have likely dispersed from the nearby Karbi-Anglonghill forests, an area that is at high risk to habitat degradation, over-extraction of natural resources, and hunting.

One of the world’s small and elusive cats, a rusty-spotted cat Prionailurus rubiginosus, was spotted in the Takhni-Rehmapur Wildlife Sanctuary, Punjab, India during a pioneering exercise to document its biodiversity by using camera traps. This is the first recorded evidence of rusty-spotted cat from the state of Punjab in India. This finding will fill in the gaps among the isolated records of rusty-spotted cat in the northern parts of India.

Effective awareness programmes in the last decade have led to increased visibility of fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus rescue and mortality reports in both print and social media platforms as compared to a decade back. Using mortality data (n=11) from The Fishing Cat Project Facebook page between January 2019 and February 2020 I identified current causes of the felid’s mortality. Death by vehicular collision was the most frequently reported cause of death followed by electrocution (due to wires deployed to kill feral pigs) and ritualistic tribal hunts. Possible conservation interventions in the landscape include deployment of speed breakers, controlling feral pig populations and continuing awareness programmes to educate locals about the fishing cat.

This study confirms the presence of two lions Panthera leo in a forest-savannah mosaic in the Centre Region of Cameroon, more than 300 km south of their known range.

We present a report on seven jaguar Panthera onca translocations in Mexico. We established five conditions for a translocation to be considered as successful. We obtained records of jaguar translocations from range officer secretaries, literature,and personal communications throughout Mexico. Translocations were deemed necessary because all jaguars, except one, preyed on livestock. Jaguar follow-up after release showed these results: (i) three killed by hunters; (ii) one unknown death,probably starvation or infection; (iii) one recaptured and in captivity; (iv) two possible survivals. Translocations can represent a politically correct emergency intervention,especially when ranchers are aggravated by livestock losses due to predation or feel endangered by the presence of felines. Given the low success rate and the logistic and biological difficulties, it should be carefully considered and only executed once all prerequisites and considerations are established before release.

During a workshop organized by the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) through their project, Support for Monitoring of Biodiversity and Climate Change in the Maya Forest in May2018, researchers working in Belize and Guatemala realized that the same jaguar Panthera onca had been photo-captured in both countries; an adult male jaguar inapparently good body condition despite having lost its tail. Although a camera trapping survey had been performed in the region in 2004, and annual surveys began in2008, it is the first transboundary jaguar reported between these countries; highlighting the importance and potential for collaborative work between Belize and Guatemala,across the Maya Forest region.

This report summarizes the discussion that emerged at the second international Small Wild Cat Conservation Summit held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 6 to 11 December 2019. Thirty one conservationists from 16 countries gathered to share and discuss the conservation status of the world’s small wild cats. They shared their research and conservation experiences, identified common threats and locally appropriate threat reduction strategies. The key threats to the small wild cat species were identified as:habitat loss and degradation, human-small wild cat conflict, hunting and poaching and vehicle collisions. However, only ten small wild cat species with known conservation initiatives were represented at the summit. A third summit planned for 2022is envisaged to have more participants and enable the representation of more small wild cat species.

Supporting Online Material

SOM Tables T1 and T2