Clouded leopard declared new species

A clouded leopard found in the rainforests of Indonesia's islands of Borneo and Sumatra is a new species of big cat, conservation group WWF said Thursday. The cat, covered in small cloud markings containing many spots, was thought to be the same species as a mainland Southeast Asian leopard, but tests have shown otherwise.
"Genetic research results clearly indicate that the clouded leopards of Borneo should be considered a separate species," Stephen O'Brien, from the US National Cancer Institute, was quoted as saying in a WWF statement. The difference between the cats was as great as the difference between lions, tigers and jaguars, the researchers said.
"The moment we started comparing the skins of the mainland clouded leopard and the leopard found on Borneo, it was clear we were comparing two different species," said Andrew Kitchener, a scientist from National Museums Scotland. "It's incredible no-one has ever noticed these differences," he was quoted as saying in WWF's statement.
The mainland leopard had larger clouds with fewer spots and lacked the new species' greyer fur and double dorsal stripe, the statement said. The leopard is Borneo's top predator and feeds on monkeys, deer and pigs, though it sometimes eats birds and monitor lizards.
Some 5,000 to 11,000 cats from the newly declared species are thought to live on Borneo, while the number on Sumatra is estimated to be 3,000 to 7,000. "For over a hundred years we have been looking at this animal and never realised it was unique," said senior WWF official Stuart Chapman.
The conservation group said the clouded leopard's last great forest home was the "Heart of Borneo," a mountainous region of 22 million hectares (54 million acres) - about five times the size of Switzerland - in the island's centre.
The main threat to the cat stems from the destruction of its habitat, with Borneo's rainforests under threat from unsustainable logging, forest fires and conversion to plantations, the group said. Since 1996, deforestation across Indonesia has increased to an average of two million hectares a year.
The forests are home to 13 primate species - including endangered orang-utans - more than 350 bird species, 150 reptiles and amphibians and about 15,000 species of plants. Scientists continue to make discoveries in the forests - more than 50 species were found last year alone.