BANGKOK \u2013 An elusive wild cat long feared extinct in Thailand has been rediscovered three decades after the last recorded sighting, the conservation authorities and an NGO said on Dec 26. <\/p>\n
Flat-headed cats are among the world\u2019s rarest and most threatened wild felines. Their range is limited to South-east Asia, and they are endangered because of dwindling habitat.<\/p>\n
The domestic cat-sized feline with its distinctive round and close-set eyes was last spotted in a documented sighting in Thailand in 1995.<\/p>\n
But an ecological survey that began in 2024, using camera traps in southern Thailand\u2019s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary, recorded 29 detections, according to the country\u2019s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and wild cat conservation organisation Panthera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rediscovery is exciting, yet concerning at the same time,\u201d veterinarian and researcher Kaset Sutasha of Kasetsart University said, noting that habitat fragmentation has left the species increasingly \u201cisolated\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear how many individuals the detections represent, as the species lacks distinctive markings, so counting is tricky.<\/p>\n
But the findings suggest a relatively high concentration of the species, Panthera conservation programme manager Rattapan Pattanarangsan said.<\/p>\n
The footage included a female flat-headed cat with her cub \u2013 a rare and encouraging sign for a species that typically produces only one offspring at a time.<\/p>\n
Nocturnal and elusive, the flat-headed cat typically lives in dense wetland ecosystems such as peat swamps and freshwater mangroves, environments that are extremely difficult for researchers to access, Professor Rattapan said.<\/p>\n
Globally, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that around 2,500 adult flat-headed cats remain in the wild, classifying the species as endangered.<\/p>\n
In Thailand, it has long been listed as \u201cpossibly extinct\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s peat swamp forests have been heavily fragmented, largely due to land conversion and agricultural expansion, said Dr Kaset, who was not involved in the ecological survey but has researched wild cats for years.<\/p>\n
The animals also face mounting threats from disease spread by domestic animals, and they struggle to reproduce across isolated areas.<\/p>\n
While the rediscovery offers hope, it is only a \u201cstarting point\u201d for future conservation efforts, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat comes after this is more important \u2013 how to enable them to live alongside us sustainably, without being threatened.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n
Endangered\/threatened speciesThailandWildlife conservationWildlifeAnimals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BANGKOK \u2013 An elusive wild cat long feared extinct in Thailand has been rediscovered three decades after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-212449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}