Superb Sunda Clouded Leopard Sighting: My lucky hat strikes again
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
Last month I took my kids to Sabah for a week of what I described as a ‘relaxed’ mammal trip. I wait to learn what adjective Katy Hall will pick … but I doubt whether this trip would meet her very high bar for relaxation, which seems to fall somewhere between lying by a pool and cryogenic sleep for space travel.
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
Most of the trip saw us visiting some of the new sites 1StopBorneo are opening up for mammalwatching. More on these in the trip report.
We also spent one night on the Kinabatagan River to make sure the kids saw Proboscis Monkeys. I didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary here and I was primarily excited about catching up over beers with Mike Gordon, legendary mammal spotter and all round good guy.
If you don’t know Mike then let me explain. If Fantasy Mammalwatching League was a thing (and maybe it should be) then Mike Gordon would be my team’s first pick. Something he demonstrated the instant he strolled into the lodge restaurant and causally told my kids “there’s an arm sticking out of that bush”. An orangutan was in a tree in front of the window and none of the 20 people inside had noticed.
It would undersell Mike to say he has the ‘eyes of a hawk’. Hawks however do sit around their perch complimenting each other after a successful capture by remarking ‘you have the eyes of a Gordon’.
He is also a fascinating guy to swap stories with over a cold Tiger beer.
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
But there is more. Mike appears to triple the effectiveness of my lucky hat.
Now as a statistician every neuron of my mathematical mind screams in pain when I even contemplate the idea of luck…. But every beat of my mammalwatching heart tells me otherwise. Last time I saw Mike a Bornean Bay Cat trotted across the track in front of us in 2022. He has seen two – I think – in over 10 years out there.
So back to the story… Mike, Shavez, the kids, Kat Smith and I were sitting drinking beer after dinner discussing whether to have one or two more before taking the boat out to go look for a Flat-headed Cat.
Mike’s phone chimes and he causally shows me a Whatsapp video of a Clouded Leopard strolling along a riverbank. Wait? What? Is this here? Now?
Three seconds later we were swallowing beer as we ran to our boat with Mike simultaneously trying to get an exact location on the cat.
I am not sure whether Mike’s friend responded before we noticed a gaggle of people and boats speeding towards Greenview Lodge. We jumped off the boat and joined the chase: every mammalwatcher for themselves. Is there any greater adrenalin rush than sprinting through the forest to reach a mega mammal before it disappears?
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
A minute later we were staring up at a large male leopard in a tree not more than 6 metres above us.
After 45 minutes my son Patrick went back to the lodge to fetch his sister who had been reluctant to join us on what she thought would be a wild goose chase. To be fair she has had more than her fair share of those on mammal trips, relaxed or otherwise.
Stressing about whether she would get back before the leopard wandered off, and sending her text messages every minute “its still here”, added to the drama.
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
The animal seemed relaxed. Yawning and stretching above the 40 people looking up at it. Only a passing dog seemed to stir it to life and we wondered whether it had come here specifically to catch one.
A few tourists arrived the same time as us and didn’t stay long. Given how many people were staying on the river it was remarkable how few came. After 30 minutes the crowd had dwindled to a few locals and us.
Everyone else left. We watched it some more. The leopard wasn’t going anywhere and so after 90 minutes we walked away.
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
It may come as no surprise to learn that, in addition to my life list and my list of 21 most wanted mammals, I have another list – of course I do – of 21 mammals I want see again. Sunda Clouded Leopard was at the top of that list: my one previous sighting was of an animal high in a tree, in the rain, back in 2004 when I didn’t have a camera and only a very weak flashlight.
Clouded Leopards are not common anywhere on Borneo, but they are very seldom seen on the Kinabatagan River, something that was clear from the number of locals who turned out to take a look.
As is so often the case with my mammal sightings I should stress that seeing this leopard involved absolutely no skill by me other than remembering to pack my lucky hat and knowing the right bloke to have a beer with. When Napoleon famously said “I’d rather have lucky generals than good ones” he hadn’t met Mike Gordon, or he would have added “.. but preferably my generals can be both”.
I cannot sell copies of Mike Gordon but I can sell you a lucky hat starter kit (i.e. I can sell you a hat). For a large donation to mammalwatching I will wear your new hat for a night in the forest: the mammalwatching equivalent of a papal blessing. Though of course there is no such thing as luck. Probably no such thing …
A full trip report will follow soonish.
Sunda Clouded Leopard, Neofelis diardii
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Tad Owen
Incredible sighting, very jealous. Would Sunda Clouded Leopard be one of the very hardest cats?