🌿 Wildlife & Conservation

🐆 Clouded Leopard – The Vanishing Phantom of the Forest

With its cloud-like coat, feline grace, and elusive nature, the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) haunts the ancient forests of Asia like a spirit.
But this vulnerable predator is facing an existential crisis — one shaped by climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation.
Recent studies urge immediate, cross-border conservation to save this secretive sentinel of biodiversity.

📍 Current Range & Population Status

• Found in: Bhutan, northeast India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, parts of China
• Extinct in: Taiwan
• Critically low populations in: Vietnam, China
• IUCN Status: Vulnerable
• IUCN classifies its distribution as:
  • Extant
  • Possibly extant
  • Possibly extinct
  • Extinct

🐾 Only 31.66% of the clouded leopard’s natural habitat lies within its confirmed, extant range.

🌍 Climate Change & Habitat Loss

• Study Findings:
  • Climate change may shrink their habitat by up to 41%
  • Species Distribution Models (SDMs) used to assess two future scenarios:
    • SSP245 – Moderate emissions
    • SSP585 – High emissions
• Impacts:
  • Greater habitat fragmentation
  • Loss of canopy cover critical for its stealthy movements

🌉 Importance of Wildlife Corridors

• 18 critical corridors identified for maintaining habitat connectivity
• Corridors are vital for:
  • Genetic diversity
  • Dispersal of juveniles
  • Preventing inbreeding
• Threat: Infrastructure and deforestation are severing these lifelines

🌲 A corridor isn’t just a path — it’s a passage for survival.

🛡️ Conservation Strategies

• 🧭 Transboundary cooperation is essential:
  • e.g., India-Nepal Terai Arc Landscape model
• 🔍 Ground-level habitat assessments
• 🧬 Phylogeographic studies to identify genetic lineages
• 📢 Public awareness and community-based conservation
• 🗺️ Expansion of protected areas and buffer zones

🤝 The clouded leopard’s fate crosses borders — so must our solutions.

🦴 Role in the Ecosystem

• Apex predator in its forest range
• Maintains prey balance and forest health
• Designating it as a flagship species could:
  • Attract funding
  • Encourage policy attention
  • Inspire grassroots conservation

📌 Fast Facts Recap

• 🧬 Scientific name: Neofelis nebulosa
• 🌦️ Potential climate-linked habitat loss: 41%
• 🌍 Current range: Bhutan, Northeast India, Myanmar, SE Asia
• 🛣️ 18 corridors essential for survival
• 🐅 Known for: Cloud-shaped coat, arboreal hunting, reclusive behaviour

🕯️ The forest loses a voice when a shadow like the clouded leopard fades. In saving it, we preserve not just a species — but silence, balance, and beauty.