In December 2024, a camera trap installed in Dehing Patkai National Park in northeast India’s Assam state captured a rare scene: a clouded leopard with a Bengal slow loris in its mouth. Both species are extremely elusive, so the photograph is rare confirmation that the medium-sized wildcat preys on the small, endangered primate, reports contributor Nabarun Guha for Mongabay India.
“In fact, only one or two people in my patrol party have reported seeing clouded leopards. So, the fact that a single camera trap image captures both these animals is extremely significant,” Ranjith Ram, divisional forest officer of the Digboi Forest Division that manages the national park, told Guha.
The camera traps in Dehing Patkai were set up by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in partnership with the forest department, and the photographic record was detailed in a recent paper.
Mainland clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), named for the cloud-like, dusky-gray blotches on their body, are classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Found in the tropical forests of mainland South, Southeast and East Asia, including the Himalayan foothills in India, these predators are thought to prey upon a wide range of species, from ungulates and primates, to porcupines, pangolins, birds, rodents and even domestic animals. But what the cats eat in their Indian habitats isn’t very well known, the researchers say. “This photographic record helps fill that gap,” they write.
Paper co-author Bilal Habib, a scientist at WII, said previous analysis of clouded leopard droppings in Thailand showed the wildcats there prey on the greater slow loris (Nycticebus coucang). The photograph from Dehing Patkai, captured just a kilometer (0.6 miles) from a tea estate and 2.5 km (1.6 mi) from the closest human habitation, offers the first photographic evidence of clouded leopards preying on a Bengal slow loris.
Classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List, the Bengal slow loris weighs about 850-2,100 grams (1.9-4.6 pounds) and is a nocturnal animal that spends much of its life in trees. The clouded leopard is also both nocturnal and arboreal, and so “it is likely that clouded leopards in this area may target this species as relatively easy to hunt prey,” the authors write.
The cameras set up in Dehing Patkai National Park are part of a study to assess the clouded leopard population across its range in India. The wild cats are threatened by poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.
Read the full story by Nabarun Guha here.
Banner image: Clouded leopard carrying a Bengal slow loris. Image courtesy of Digboi Forest Division.
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