I’m happy you enjoyed this blog. I tell you, I made sure to be sure I had my facts straight on all these cats before posting because I knew you would call me out on it if I got anything wrong. An interesting thing is that I wrote these both and split it into halves, spacing out their appearance here on Cryptomundo, so Part 2 was already finished when Part 1 went up, yet you are the only one who guessed Neofelis , which is my top contender. I guess that figures with you, but you should get some kind of prize. lol

By the way, a scientist can wish! I’m quite the dreamer myself. After all, we’re only human like everyone else.

I really hope that there is at least confirmation, at some point, that a larger feline is also endemic to Iriomte, even if it turns out to be a known and described species such as a golden cat, marbled cat, or clouded leopard.

But I have always wished for (knowing how unscientific it is to “wish”; what can I say, can’t a scientist also be a romantic and a dreamer?), anyhow, I have longed for sabertooth cats, living wild. from their day to this, in some remote area, waiting to be discovered. Neofelis ssp. are almost sabertoothed; they were once thought to be possibly congeneric with Paramachairodus. That has turned out not to be the case, but I don’t discount the possibility of Paramachairodus, or some other smallish-to-midsized sabertooth cat, living to the present day in some isolated area such as Iriomote.

Thanks for the terrific blog. I am still looking for the article that I saw a few years back, which included photos, from hidden cameras, of a wild melanistic clouded leopard. I do not recall where I saw the article, except that it was a nature magazine or a nature article in a science magazine. I will find it one day and when I do I’ll post it. Because the melanistic clouded leopard looked even more like a sabertooth cat than the normally patterned ones do.

You underscore many of the points I made in my article above. The clouded leopard is very reclusive compared to the leopard, and it is one of the reasons I tend to think that Neofelis is a good candidate for a felid able to remain hidden. Leopards tend to be bolder and I would think that more sightings would have cropped up on such a relatively small island if that were the case. Also, as I mentioned in my article, the clouded leopard is widely considered one of the best climbers in the cat family, in fact that is the reason for such a long tail, as it helps to promote added balance. This highly arboreal nature would undoubtedly contribute to its remaining elusive, as well as cause the sightings that have happened in trees.

I suppose I should throw some information in on island dwarfism and island gigantism as well, since it has been brought up here and I did not have the space to touch on it before.

Island dwarfism is a condition mostly often found in mammals, and occurs due a range of co-contributing factors and constraints. It is largely due to selection in reaction to environmental stresses and a limited gene pool within a population in an island ecosystem. For instance, island dwarfism is likely to happen when there is a food decline, and therefore smaller animals are more likely to survive due to more modest food requirements. In a smaller gene pool, these environmental pressures are going to have a more profound effect on the species. You can think of it like throwing a rock in the water. In a small puddle, the ripples are going to have more of an effect on the overall body of water in contrast to throwing the rock into a large lake.

Island dwarfism need not even happen on an island in the traditional sense of the word. Ecologically speaking, any isolated environment surrounded by unlike environments can be technically considered more or less an island, and be subject to the same effects and constraints on the wildlife. For instance, you still have populations that are geographically isolated, surviving within a limited ecosystem and prevented from external breeding with outside populations.

Island gigantism also can happen in island environments, one example being the Komodo dragon that Kittenz brought up. There are many other examples, such as the Galapagos giant tortoises, the weta of New Zealand, and the extinct elephant birds of Madagascar. In island gigantism, the contributing factors are a bit different from dwarfism. Where island dwarfism is largely due to environmental constraints, island gigantism is caused by a lack of constraints. This is why it most often occurs in herbivores. On an island with plentiful food resources, and a lack of natural predators, the animal can afford to grow larger over many generations.

As a general rule (but not always), herbivores tend towards island gigantism, whereas carnivores are more likely to display island dwarfism. Hopefully this information will shed some more light on these processes.

Kittenz, I sure hope you enjoyed this article. I was even going to dedicate it to you, but didn’t know if that would seem cheesy. I actually had you in mind when I was writing it, so I’ll be pleased if you’ve enjoyed this.

Lots of information and lots of photos.

Also check out Bornean Wild Cat & Clouded Leopard Project, which has even more information as well as a slideshow of TERRIFIC trailcam photos from the projects.

I don’t know whether I agree with that line of reasoning; I think that more research needs to be done, and much more thought given to the subject, before anyone can be reasonably sure which cat evolved from or alongside which others. But I can see what lead people to postulate the theory.

Also, consider: clouded leopards are, largely, island species. They, like leopards, are also opportunistic hunters – though in the case of clouded leopards, they rely more on the opportunities to take animals of the deeper forest, while leopards preferentially hunt the forest edges – including areas inhabited by humans. Clouded leopards live on mainland southeastern asia too, but their preferred domain seems to be large islands with lots of forest (although recent field research indicates that they are very comfortable hunting on the ground, and in fact may do much of their hunting there). Leopards, while they are the most adaptable of cats and can live practically anywhere, can and do live on islands, but they don’t tend to be quite as secretive as other cats. Their bold nature usually results in them being a known and accepted part of the fauna wherever they are found, because people see them, or traces of them, fairly regularly. (An interesting “aside” to this is that in parts of Malaysia, native people do not, when shown photos of “spotted” leopards, recognize the spotted variety as part of their local fauna, but when shown melanistic leopards, they say “Oh yes, of course, we know that one”. This because in some areas melanistic leopards are the norm and spotted ones occur seldom or never.)

Clouded leopards, on the other hand, are so much creatures of the canopy that they can run headfirst down trees, leap from tree to tree without touching the ground for miles, and even hang by their hind paws from branches. In many areas where they occur, they are seen only very rarely.

As to island dwarfism, larger animals do often develop dwarf forms on islands. This seems to be the case especially when big herbivores become isolated in island habitats. But islands can induce the opposite in some animals : gigantism (Komodo dragon, anyone? ) Komodo dragons are not the only examples, of course; many bears that become isolated to island habitats develop gigantism. Cats don’t seem to develop either extreme dwarfism or extreme gigantism in response to island situations. Smaller members of feline species tend to occur in the tropics, while larger members tend to occur in colder temperate regions, but true gigantism or dwarfism is rare in cats.

Given a medium sized, arboreal, felid, possibly retaining primitive features (as do both the Iriomote cat and the clouded leopard, to some extent), my money’s on Neofelis as the prime suspect for the larger Iriomote mystery cat – or maybe – just MAYBE – there’s something REALLY unique out there, a true living fossil, like maybe a living species of Paramachairodus.

DWA- There is a high density of many possible prey species on the island. In addition to the wild boar, there are a great many species of birds, as well as bats, rats, and reptiles such as skinks and box turtles. The known wildcat is known to swim and it is thought to feed on fish, crabs, and freshwater shrimp, so that is another prey possibility. Consider that not only would the cats have adapted to the type of fare on the island, a cat like a leopard is already an opportunistic hunter anyway. They will eat anything they can get their claws on, from insects to antelope and elands. The island offers more than enough for a cat like this to eat.

I must say that I am very happy people are enjoying this piece I did. Thank you very much for the support.