An adult leopard cat weighing 4.3kg was found dead on an expressway on Wednesday in Chiayi County, likely having been hit by a vehicle, Endemic Species Research Institute staff said.
Prior to the incident, Chiayi was the only county without a recorded roadkill incident since the center began keeping such records in 2011.
The leopard cat was found far from the mountains, and the center’s researchers believe that the animal might have accidentally entered the expressway after walking along the Niouchou River (牛稠溪).
Photo: CNA
There have only been two other sightings of leopard cats in Chiayi County, with one in 1994 being found in a claw trap, and another in 2018 when an image was captured by cameras installed in mountainous areas near Jhongpu Township (中埔) by National Chiayi University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources.
The center said it has reliable knowledge of leopard cat populations in Miaoli and Nantou counties, as well as around Taichung, adding that a survey conducted from 2014 to 2016 showed that populations under altitudes of 1,000m are mostly centered in Jiji Township (集集) and nearby areas.
Areas south of Jhushan Township (竹山) have rarely recorded sightings of leopard cats, the center said.
Separately, the center said that it reintroduced two rehabilitated leopard cats to the wild in Jhushan Township (竹山) last year, adding that one, which they named Xi Huge (西湖哥), had been killed by a dog on the banks of the Jhuoshui River (濁水溪).
The other, named Huge (虎哥), was more limber and traveled as far as Gukeng Township (古坑) in Nantou County before the center lost track of the animal.
The center said that its last coordinates were near a local duck farm, and it suspects that human or natural intervention is likely related to its disappearance.
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