Clouded leopard

Clouded leopards eat meat.

They catch monkeys, small deer, squirrels and birds. They hunt in the trees and on the ground.

Clouded leopards are carnivores. They hunt animals that live in trees and on the ground: monkeys such as macaques and gibbons, small deer, squirrels, porcupines, pangolins and birds.

People once thought these cats did most of their hunting up in the trees. Today scientists think that much of their hunting happens on the ground. A clouded leopard creeps quietly toward its prey, then pounces quickly. Its strong legs and very long teeth let it catch animals that are quite large for a cat its size.

The diet spans arboreal and terrestrial vertebrates. In Thailand's Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, recorded prey included hog deer, slow lorises, brush-tailed porcupines, Malayan pangolins and Indochinese ground squirrels (IUCN). The IUCN Cat Specialist Group notes a preference for primates such as pig-tailed macaques and gibbons, as well as muntjac deer and great argus pheasants.

Although it is a superb climber, the National Zoo reports that current thinking places most hunting on the ground, with some ambushes from trees. Clouded leopards stalk quietly and then pounce (Animal Diversity Web), and their strong legs, large canines and wide gape, about 100 degrees, let them take sizeable prey.

Clouded leopards like to live alone.

They are very shy and hard to see. They rest up in the trees. They hunt at night, and early and late in the day.

Clouded leopards are solitary, which means they mostly live alone, and they are very secretive. They are most active at night and at dawn and dusk, though they can be out at any time.

They often rest in trees but travel long distances on the ground. In Thailand, scientists who followed clouded leopards with radio collars found that each one used an area of about 30 to 40 square kilometers. They mark their areas with scent. Clouded leopards cannot roar like a lion, but they can growl and hiss.

Radio-tracking in Thailand found that males and females had similar home ranges of 30 to 40 square kilometers, with core areas of 3 to 5 square kilometers and substantial overlap between individuals; in one park, cats travelled about twice as far each day (on average 2 kilometers) as in another (IUCN). Activity peaks at night and around dawn and dusk.

Clouded leopards may occur at higher densities where tigers and leopards are scarce. In captivity they communicate by scent marking and by growls, hisses and a friendly snorting sound called prusten (Animal Diversity Web). A long moaning call heard in the wild may be a mating or territorial call; its purpose is not known.

There are fewer clouded leopards than there used to be.

Their forests are being cut down. People are working to protect them in parks and keep them safe.

The clouded leopard is Vulnerable, which means it is at risk of dying out in the wild. Its forests are being cut down fast, and many clouded leopards are hunted illegally or caught by accident in wire traps called snares that people set for other animals.

It is protected by law in most of the countries where it lives, and it lives in many national parks and tiger reserves. Rangers who stop snaring and poaching in these parks help clouded leopards too.

The IUCN assessed the Mainland clouded leopard as Vulnerable in November 2020 (published 2021), with a decreasing population. The assessors inferred a decline of more than 30 percent over three generations (1999 to 2019) and estimated that probably fewer than 10,000 mature animals remain, likely about 3,700 to 5,580. Habitat strongholds shrank by about 34 percent between 2000 and 2018.

The main driver of recent decline is illegal hunting: snares set for other animals, especially in Lao PDR and Cambodia, and targeted hunting for the wildlife trade, in which skins, bones, meat and live animals are sold (IUCN). The species is on CITES Appendix I and protected by national law over most of its range; better-protected parks and transboundary planning are recommended.