Source: People's Daily client Yunnan Channel
"That's right, it's a clouded leopard!" Recently, when the Management and Conservation Bureau of Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province combed the infrared camera data of the "Eye of the Secret Realm" project, it was pleasantly surprised to find the figure of the clouded leopard from several infrared cameras. This is the second time that the clouded leopard was recorded by an infrared camera after it was photographed in Dehong in 2017. In the clouded leopard images combed out by the bureau, there are even 3 picture of clouded leopards in the same frame. At present, the wild images of clouded leopards in China are very rare, and the 3 clouded leopards in the wild are unique, and these images are of great value to the scientific research of clouded leopards.
The clouded leopard is the most mysterious and mysterious species of mammalian cats, and little is known about the behavior of the clouded leopard in the wild. It evolved independently in the late Miocene, 6.4 million years ago, and is named after the six cloud-like dark markings on either side of the body. The clouded leopard has short and robust limbs, a tail that is almost as long and thick as the body, and the proportion of the length of canine teeth ranks first among cats, similar to the prehistoric extinct saber-toothed tiger, so the clouded leopard is also known as the "small saber-toothed tiger". Its jaws can be opened to an angle of almost 90 degrees (about 85 degrees for saber-toothed tigers), while most cats can only open 65-70 degrees. The structure of the clouded leopard's skull gives it an astonishing and lethal bite power of up to 360 pounds, more than 2 times larger than the cheetahs and snow leopards. The clouded leopard also has a place to stand out from the crowd of "big cats", which can "walk" down from the vertical trunk with its head down and tail up.
The reporter carefully combed through the infrared images and found that 4 infrared cameras placed at different latitudes and longitudes and altitudes captured the images of clouded leopards. One camera at an altitude of 1299 meters recorded clouded leopard images twice on 27 November 2019 at 23:20 and 29 at 19:47 on November 29, 2019; one camera at 1477 meters above sea level captured clouded leopard images at 8:32, 8:54 and 04:39 on December 22, 2019; the other took clouded leopard images at 1:21 on December 16, 2019; and the most recent infrared camera to photograph clouded leopards was on January 9, 20205 : 15 minutes captured the image of a clouded leopard passing through the trees. Conservative speculation, this time at least 4 clouded leopards were photographed, in these images, clouded leopards "calmly" walked through the jungle, from the size of the point of view they are adults, from the recording of the image time span, gait, performance, etc., they are more familiar with the area, should be long-term living in these areas.
Yu Xuanwen, director of the Yingjiang Management and Conservation Branch of the Management and Protection Bureau of Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve in Yunnan, told reporters that there is no accurate statistics on the population of clouded leopards in China, but the number has been extremely rare, the distribution range has been extremely narrow, and the population has been critically endangered. Because the clouded leopard is mostly active in the jungle and at night, its movements are "weird", and no photographer in China has taken high-quality images in the wild. At present, the only places in China that can confirm the field image data of clouded leopards recorded by infrared cameras are Yunnan and Tibet. In recent years, within the scope of Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve, infrared cameras have taken images of clouded leopard activities in different areas several times, which strongly prove that there is a relatively stable and good clouded leopard population distribution and an environment suitable for the survival of clouded leopards in Dehong. With the batch recovery and image combing of the infrared camera of the "Eye of the Secret" project, there may be more surprises.