Researchers have confirmed that a young adult leopard cat named Lulu has given birth to two cubs after recent images revealed their presence in Nantou County, the Endemic Species Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture said on Wednesday.
The images, which showed Lulu with the two young cubs in a mountainous area of Xinyi Township (信義), were taken on Oct. 12 by motion-activated cameras installed in the area by an institute research team responsible for the conservation of the species, which is endangered in Taiwan.
It was the first time the three leopard cats were filmed together since Lulu was electronically tagged and released into the wild in February 2019 in Xinyi, one of the native leopard cats’ original habitats where the institute operates a rehabilitation center.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo
Footage showed Lulu walking along a path with one of the cubs, while other images showed the adult leopard cat picking up another cub by the scruff of its neck — leading researchers to conclude that Lulu recently gave birth to the two cubs, the team said.
Lulu was first captured by researchers in December 2018 after the institute received a report from a chicken farmer in Lugu Township (鹿谷) that the leopard cat had killed poultry at his farm.
Lulu was released into her original habitat in Lugu two months later after veterinarians treated her for scratches and wounds after an incident in which she lost two toes.
The animal was captured again in 2020 after prowling around another farm with a young leopard cat researchers called “Bro Lugu,” believed to be her only cub at the time. The two were released back into the wild in Xinyi in September last year after being trained to recognize the danger posed by the electric fences used by local farms.
Researchers lost track of Bro Lugu in March, the institute said.
Native leopard cat populations are commonly clustered in Miaoli County, Nantou and Taichung, with most living below altitudes of 1,000m.
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