Sightings of leopard cats in Yunlin County have been confirmed, marking the first time the animals have been spotted there since 1988, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Nantou Branch said on Wednesday.
Images of leopard cats were first captured in Pingding Village (坪頂) in the county’s Linnei Township (林內) on April 6, 2019, by infrared cameras attached to Formosan rock macaques for research conducted by Su Hsiu-hui (蘇秀慧), an associate professor at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Wildlife Conservation, the branch said in a news release.
To confirm that the images were of leopard cats, the branch monitored and gathered more images over the next few years, and after consulting with experts, was able to confirm that the animals were indeed leopard cats, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Nantou Branch
In 2020 and last year, images of leopard cats were captured in Pingding, Huben (湖本) and Linmao (林茂) villages in Linnei, and this year photographs of the animals were taken in Sinjhuang Village (新庄) in Gukeng Township (古坑), and again in Pingding.
The Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute rewilded two leopard cat cubs in 2021 and has since confirmed that they have made their way to Yunlin.
Leopard cats mainly live in Taichung, and Miaoli and Nantou counties, and have occasionally been spotted in Hsinchu, Changhua, Chiayi and Tainan in the past few years, the branch said.
Although Yunlin is not one of the animals’ natural habitats, it is an important part of their migration route toward the south, it added.
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