KUALA LUMPUR: The Indochinese leopard, which had been poached to near extinction, is now critically endangered in Southeast Asia.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List update published last month, the assessment of the subspecies found that the leopard population had declined by more than 80 per cent across its historical range in the past two decades.
This was largely due to indiscriminate snaring and poaching.
“The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is deeply concerned by the decline in the Indochinese leopard population.
“It is critical for the governments in the region to take action. We have a collective responsibility to ensure the remaining populations do not go extinct,” said WWF International’s Asia Pacific regional director Dr A. Christy Williams.
The new listing of the Indochinese leopard as critically endangered is based on an assessment conducted by conservation and research organisations Panthera and The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of Oxford University in July last year.