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Elusive wild cat thought extinct, rediscovered in Thailand after thirty years
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Elusive wild cat thought extinct, rediscovered in Thailand after thirty years

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An elusive wild cat long feared extinct in Thailand has been rediscovered 30 years after the last recorded sighting, conservation authorities and an NGO said on Friday.
Flat-headed cats are among the rarest and most endangered wild cats in the world. Their range is limited to Southeast Asia and they are endangered due to declining habitat.
The domestic cat-sized feline with its distinctive round and close-set eyes was last seen during a documented sighting in Thailand in 1995.
But an ecological survey that began last year using camera traps in the Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary in southern Thailand recorded 29 detections, according to the country’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the wild cat conservation organization Panthera.

“The rediscovery is exciting, but worrying at the same time,” said veterinarian and researcher Kaset Sutasha of Kasetsart University, noting that habitat fragmentation has left the species increasingly “isolated.”

The ecological survey was conducted by Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation (DNP) and Panthera Thailand. Source: Delivered / Panthera Thailand

It was not immediately clear how many individual detections there were, because the species has no distinguishing markings, making counting difficult.

But the findings suggest a relatively high concentration of the species, said Rattapan Pattanarangsan, program manager of Panthera’s conservation program.
The footage showed a female flat-headed cat with her cub – a rare and encouraging sign for a species that typically produces only one offspring at a time.

The flathead cat is nocturnal and elusive and typically lives in dense wetland ecosystems such as peat swamps and freshwater mangroves, environments that are extremely difficult for researchers to access.

Globally, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that there are approximately 2,500 adult flat-headed cats left in the wild, classifying the species as endangered.
In Thailand it has long been listed as “possibly extinct”.
Thailand’s peat swamp forests are highly fragmented, largely due to land conversion and agricultural expansion, said Kaset, who was not involved in the ecological study but has been researching feral cats for years.
The animals also face increasing threats from diseases spread by pets, and they struggle to reproduce in isolated areas.
While the rediscovery offers hope, it is only a “starting point” for future conservation efforts, he said.
“What comes next is more important: how we can enable them to live alongside us sustainably, without being threatened.”

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