Photo in the News: New Leopard Species Announced

By Ted Chamberlain, National Geographic

A new leopard Species has been discovered in the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. This leopard species were believed to be part of the mainland clouded leopard species, but WWF has had tests in which DNA clearly shows that this is a completely different leopard species. Now, it has been named clouded leopard. It weighs about 50 pounds, 23 kg, and is the largest predator on Borneo after the Sumatran tiger. It feeds on monkeys, lizards, and small deer. The clouded leopard has different fur pattern and skin coloration (coloration means colors of the skin). Therefore, it is not only different DNA; these animals are different even from the view of the naked eye. Now, scientists are questioning how these species have ever been mistaken for the mainland clouded leopard species."It's incredible that no one has ever noticed these differences," says Andrew Kitchener. Today there have been estimated from 8,000 to 18,000 Bornean clouded leopards. Still, we have made this reckless mistake with classification.

I thought this article was pretty weird when I first read it. If a two species of leopards don’t have the same fur pattern, same fur coloring and different DNA, how could we have made such a reckless mistake and thought that they were the same species? Sometimes I think that our race makes some discovery, and then our technologies get better. Since the discovery already is made we don’t bother checking over the facts, no matter how ridiculous and obvious they might be. Maybe there are many species that we classify as the same that are actually completely different on the planet. That might mean that we have more species than we think we do, and more biodiversity. It also means that we have to save more natural habitats to save all the species of the planet. I think that scientists should be more accurate with their “facts”, and I think that we should constantly be checking and re- checking our information and sources of information. Even the best can make reckless mistakes like calling a butterfly a beetle.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070315-leopardpicture.html?intcmp=photo0407