Indochinese leopard

Indochinese leopard
An Indochinese leopard at Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Vietnam.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. pardus
Subspecies:	P. p. delacouri
Trinomial name
Panthera pardus delacouri Pocock, 1930

The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is a leopard subspecies native to mainland Southeast Asia and southern China. In Indochina, leopards are rare outside protected areas and threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation as well as poaching for the illegal wildlife trade.

The trend of the population is suspected to be decreasing. The extent of the population decline revealed by a 2016 study surprised the researchers: its population is believed to be 1,000–2,500 individuals, with only 400–1,000 breeding adults.

There appears to be a disjunction around the Kra Isthmus, where the population changes from predominantly black forms south of the Isthmus to predominantly spotted forms north of the Isthmus. Records from camera-trapping studies conducted at 22 locations in Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand between 1996 and 2009 show that only melanistic leopards were present in samples south of the Isthmus. In the dense tropical forest habitat in part of their range, melanism is quite common, and black leopards have a selective advantage for ambush.

The Indochinese leopard historical distribution range includes Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and South China. As of 2016, the species is functionally extinct in Vietnam and Laos and nearly extinct in Cambodia and China. Two strongholds and one priority site have been mentioned: Peninsular Malaysia and the Northern Tenasserim Forest Complex on Thailand-Myanmar border on the one side and eastern Cambodia on the other.

In Myanmar's Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, leopards declined so drastically between the 1940s–80s, that by 2000 were estimated being close to locally extinct.

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Wikipedia