Photo. Image of the Leopard © WWF-Canon / Alain COMPOST.
Accordng to WWF on 15 March 2007, the news comes just a few weeks after a WWF report showed that scientists had identified at least 52 new species of animals and plants over the past year on Borneo.
“Who said a leopard can never change its spots?" said Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo programme. "For over a hundred years we have been looking at this animal and never realized it was unique. The fact that Borneo’s top predator is now considered a separate species further emphasizes the importance of conserving one of the most biologically diverse habitats on Earth.”
The leopard is the smallest member of the 4 "great cats" and most closely resembles its cousin the Jaguar. Its found throughout Africa, from the Arabian Peninsula through Asia to Manchuria and Korea, and now in Borneo.
Earlier, for a long time ago, it was thought that a leopard was a hybrid between a lion and a panther, and the leopard's common name derives from this belief. Sometimes observers can be mistaken a leopard for a cheetah due to their frequently overlapping ranges, but in many ways there are big differences between leopards and cheetahs. Leopards are fascinating predators, especially for their wild night life.
Researchers at the US National Cancer Institute say the differences between the Borneo and mainland clouded leopard were found to be comparable to the differences between other large cat species such as lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar and snow leopard. They believe the Borneo population likely diverged from the mainland population some 1.4 million years ago
Read mor on WWFs website www.Panda.org
Stein Morten Lund, 15 March 2007
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