HELSINK: Smuggling of organs from clouded leopards has been rising and warrants immediate action to protect the big cat, environmentalists say. The clouded leopard is one of the eight wildcat species native to Myanmar. The leopards’ fur is highly prized and their body parts are believed to have medicinal properties, creating a lucrative black market. The clouded leopard was the most smuggled big cat after tigers and leopards, said Hla Naing, a researcher on clouded leopards at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
“The whole world is left with at most just over 3,000 tigers. Leopards become as scarce as tigers, so they are in high demand in the international black market.” The habitats and food of leopards have been lost to deforestation, he added. “Clouded leopards thrive in closed forests. A lack of these spells danger for their very existence. Besides smuggling, deforestation is one of the reasons behind the dropping population of clouded leopards.”
A study between 1990 and 2002 suggests the country is left with 15 sites inhabited by clouded leopards. University and the WCS conducted a study from 2014-16 and learned one to three clouded leopards were living in every 100 square kilometres of the Tamanthi reserve.
Clouded leopards have been seen only in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Bhutan and China.
