Indonesian WWF Tiger Research Team coordinator Karmila Parakkasi said here on Wednesday that the five species of wild cats are the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), stone cat (Pardofelis marmorata), golden cat (Catopuma temmincki) , and the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis).
These five endangered cat species are found in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve, Province of Riau, after WWF cameras had been mounted in a number of areas to record clearly their existence.
"The activities of these wildcats had been recorded clearly on the research team`s cameras on their regular route," she said.
Locations of the wild cats were known as the wildlife corridor that connects the conservation areas Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park .
"Both areas are currently threatened by degradation due to serious encroachment and logging," said Karmila.
According to law number 7 of 1999 on the plants & animals, the wild cats are state protected animals.
Karmila added that based on the criteria of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), four other wild cat species apart from the leopard cats had also been declared as critically endangered species.
Therefore the findings of the five species Sumatran cats proved that they are unique in Bukit Tigapuluh and the surrounding connective corridor still exists.
"These findings also indicate the importance of serious efforts to immediately protect the region from the threat of large scale natural forest encroachment and illegal logging," said Karmila.
During the three months of systematic surveys with automatic monitoring cameras in 2011, WWF-Indonesia has successfully found a total of 404 images of wild cats including 226 photographs of the Sumatran tiger, 77 of clouded leopards, 70 of golden cats, four of stone cats, and 27 f Leopard cats.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
