Update: New Clouded Leopard

Of course, the media has gone wild and over-reached a bit in highlighting the “new species” discovery of the Borneo/Sumatra clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) as such a remarkable find in many news articles. Indeed, the cat was there all the time, and has been “in the books” for 184 years.

Of course, as has been mentioned within previous comments, I first talked about the reclassification of the two clouded leopards via this blog, on December 15, 2006, here: “Clouded Leopards: Two Species.”

It is exciting to find something that’s been under our noses all the time, but let’s be realistic about it not exactly being such a startling “new species,” as the felids, in general, are being genetically reclassified into new species and subspecies at an increasing rate.

Directly above is the lighter clouded leopard shown on an Indian stamp issue and thus it is Neofelis nebulosa.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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