One of the world’s most beautiful but rare and elusive cats, the Bornean clouded leopard, has been filmed up close in Malaysia.
Biologist Jyrki Hokkanen who was in Malaysia on a holiday trip has captured unique footage of a young female leopard resting in the forest. As this arboreal felid is so elusive it is seldomly captured on tape. But Dr. Jyrki Hokkanen, an enthusiast wildlife videographer, was able to do so at his last night of a two week stay in a lodge in Malaysian Borneo.
In the dark, with a flashlight, a good camera and a steady hand he filmed the smallest of the big cats, last August. Experts say the footage is extraordinary, believing it to be the only close-up film of the Bornean clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi borneensis) in the wild.
Fernando Najera, an expert who manages a clouded leopard captive breeding centre in Thailand, suggested it to be a young female rather than a cub considering its size and appearance, including the adult length of the teeth.
Read more about Jyrki Hokkanen’s experiences in Borneo at Mongabay (including additional footage).
(Source: BBC Nature News, 10.12.2012; UPI.com News, 10.12.2012; Mongabay.com, 07.02.2013)