【SMIT】拯救云豹宝宝 Ghost Cat Saving the Clouded Leopard

Deep in an ancient jungle, a magnificent animal is on the prowl. Stunning and secretive, Southeast Asia's clouded leopard. This rarely seen wild cat has been a mystery to humans for centuries. But now, there's disturbing new evidence that we can't ignore. Threats in the forest and unsettling images from inside the illegal animal trade. Human and natural forces are driving clouded leopards to the edge of extinction. Clouded leopard is one of the most endangered cat species we have on Earth. Scientists are racing to unlock the secrets of these enigmatic predators. Cheers. And activists are trying to stop the killing. But clouded leopards are defying attempts to protect them. Males attacking their female partners. A mother killing its own cub. Their aggression problems, their behavioral problems really compromises our ability to save them. And soon, these mysterious cats could disappear forever. Hence Khao Yai National Park. More than 2,000 square kilometers of protected wilderness. It's the realm of the clouded leopard. That is, if you can find one. 29-year-old Kanda Demrong Chinara. A Thai graduate student is trying to track clouded for a project run by the Smithsonian and an activist group called Wild Aid Thailand. The problem is she's been searching for almost three years and she's never seen a single one. It's difficult to explain. I'm fascinated by this animal. They are beautiful creatures, and it's extremely rare to see them in the forest. This jungle is home to a magnificent range of species, but unfortunately for Kanda, she's after the most elusive one. Only six clouded leopards have ever been tracked and studied in the wild. And scientists still don't know much more than the basics, including how many are actually left. They do know that clouded leopards weigh up to 50 pounds. One tenth the size of a lion or a tiger. And a range of special features make them master tree climbers. Short, stout legs keep a clouded center of gravity low, helping it climb and hang from branches. Rotating rear ankles enable the cat to descend tree trunks head first to track prey on the ground. And a long, flexible tail, the length of its entire body, keeps the clouded balanced when it's prowling along branches. But critical information on their breeding patterns, feeding habits, and habitat is still missing. Kanda and her team spend up to four days at a time in the forest, trying to find any clues they possibly can. But the fact is, the chances of them seeing a clouded leopard in forests like this one are falling every day. Thousands of years ago, clouded leopards thrived in giant jungles that stretched from northern India, clear across Southeast Asia to Taiwan, and as far south as Indonesia. But since then, logging, agriculture, and human development have destroyed more than half of their original habitat. A staggering 88% of the country's primary forests are already gone, as their habitat continues to disappear. The cats do too. And it's getting harder and harder for researchers like Conda to gather the data needed to help protect them. These days, to find clouded leopards for sure, there is one place you can go. And it's not the jungle. The town of Tachilek is an international smuggler's paradise. It lies in the infamous Golden Triangle. A region on the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. This is ground zero in the clouded leopard trade. Poverty, military conflict, and a thriving drug trade have all helped to make this one of the most lawless corners of the globe and a hub for the buying and selling of endangered species. Peace. Tassanee Wedphongsa is trying to put a stop to the illegal clouded leopard trade. She works for an activist organization named WildAid Thailand. Its methods are often controversial, and today, Tassanee is armed with an undercover camera. She's hoping to gather evidence of the illegal trade in clouded leopard skins. If she succeeds, WildAid can use the footage to convince Thai and Myanmar authorities to crack down. A native of Thailand, Tassanee is hoping the sellers will think she's just another local buyer. No one knows about the tiny camera that Tassanee has sewn into her shirt, and now she's on her own. In many countries, openly selling endangered animal parts would be unthinkable, but not here. Lack of enforcement is one reason these goods are flooding in from across the region, including China, Tibet, and even India. Finally, Tasani finds what she's looking for. The distinct cloud-like pattern is unmistakable. Tasani has hit the jackpot. The rising number of clouded leopard skins for sale in places like Tachilek is one reason Dr. Jo Gail Howard has come to Thailand. We have 36 species of non-domestic cats all over the world and most of those are endangered and clouded leopard is the next species to go in Southeast Asia. Jo Gail is a veterinarian from the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. I first got involved in clouded leopards, actually, the first year I arrived at the National Zoo, and that was 1980. It was difficult to breed them then, and it's still difficult to breed them now. Thailand's Khao Kheow Zoo is the site of a unique clouded leopard survival project run by the Smithsonian's National Zoo and the Nashville Zoo in Tennessee. Jo Gail is working with a joint Thai-American team to try and breed clouded leopards in captivity. It may be the only way to save the species, if they can succeed. I think why this project is so important is that this really is the most difficult cat, I think, to breed in all the 36 species of cats that we have to help save. One reason it's so hard to breed clouded leopards is a mysterious behavior found only in males. When a male and female clouded leopard are placed in the same cage to mate, the male can suddenly become aggressive and kill the female. No one knows why. Joe Gale and a team of veterinarians are visiting the victim of a male attack. Her name is Pukluk. This is a female that was attacked by a male and it was a very traumatic attack. Her leg had to be amputated and that's why you'll see her missing front leg is gone. Members of the breeding team have witnessed these kinds of attacks before. They've even caught one on video. This tape is from the summer of 2003. It starts as a playful encounter. But suddenly, the male turns on his mate, launching a vicious assault. The female cat finally breaks free. The keepers are relieved. This time, the female wasn't injured, but Pukluk wasn't so fortunate. Her attack happened at night. She was found the next morning lying in a pool of blood. Today, the team is here because she's not eating properly and appears weak. They need to take her to the hospital for tests. When they try to move her, she could become violent. So they use a tranquilizer dart. Well, it's always a special treat to even be near a clouded leopard. But when one is anesthetized, we try to take advantage of that. For Jo Gail, captive animals like Pukluk offer the only chance she may get to unlock the secrets of clouded leopard biology and behavior. It's unlikely that Pukluk's eating problem is related to the attack, but the damage it caused was permanent. So he got her through the chain link fence and just basically got her leg and ripped it. The only route we could go was just amputate the leg. And she has been doing great ever since and gets around great and climbs like a clouded leopard. The injuries to her leg have made it too risky to try and breed her again. Because she is missing one limb, she probably cannot stand for a breeding male and really support his weight for a breeding encounter. So that's why we have to take her out of the breeding program. Joe Gale needs to find ways to prevent future attacks. But clouded leopards are not like their larger cousins, lions and tigers. Scientists and filmmakers have been able to observe and film these cats in the wild for decades. It's enabled them to learn a lot about how they live. Hunt and raise their young. Clouded leopards are a very different story. It's just very difficult to study clouded leopards in the dense forest in Southeast Asia. And that's what makes this video footage truly amazing. It's May, 2005. A German tourist is filming his night drive through Malaysia's Tabin Wildlife Reserve when suddenly his camera lands on the impossible, the ghost cat, a living, breathing clouded leopard. This may be the only existing footage of a clouded leopard in the wild, and as suddenly as it appeared, the elusive predator slips back into the night. A chance sighting like this one is what Conda and the rangers have been hoping for for years. Evidence of the cats could be anywhere, but today, again, there's not even a trace. I come to look for animal tracks in the daytime, but that's the opposite of animals like the clouded leopard. They're active at night. Hunting prey like birds and deer. But Kanda doesn't hunt clouded leopards at night. Poachers and predators like bears make it too dangerous. Thank you. Instead, she and the rangers are placing special camera traps in the forest. Be her eyes in the darkness. An infrared heat sensor will trigger the camera's shutter. Whenever an animal crosses its beam, even a single image could shed light on the ghost cat's mysterious behavior. But most of all, Konda wants to confirm that they're actually still here. They'll come back later to collect the film. It seems surprising that clouded leopards are so hard to see in the wild, especially when you enter the Myanmar border town of Tachileik and discover that these elusive cats can suddenly appear anywhere. Tassanee Wedpongsa from the activist organization WildAid Thailand is still trying to gather evidence of the illegal trade in clouded leopards. She thinks she's found a major supplier. And with the hidden camera in her shirt rolling, she's trying to get him to tell her how his business actually works. You cut them. Why? Because you trap them? You use the trap to catch? Scientists believe there may be as few as 10,000 clouded leopards left in the wild. No one knows how many of these are killed for their skins every year, but this trader assures Tassanee he can provide plenty more. Too many questions might blow her cover, so Tassanee pretends she's ready to buy. She strikes a deal, two complete clouded leopard skins for 100 US dollars a piece. And then she takes it one step further. Can you send to my hotel? I don't want to carry this myself. She tells them she needs to get the goods back to Thailand, across the international border. The seller agrees to smuggle them, at his own risk. The offer is significant. The easier it is to cross borders with illegal animal skins, the bigger the potential market, and the greater the chances that more endangered animals will be killed for profit, with everything caught on her camera. Tassanee says she'll come back later to seal the deal. Okay, alright, see you. Little do the sellers know, she won't be back. Tassanee will use the footage she shot to convince Thai and Myanmar officials that the trade in clouded leopards is booming and needs to be stopped before it's too late. But in this part of the world, cutting off the cross-border trade of endangered species isn't so easy. And it's not hard to see why. Only the narrow Mae Sai River separates Thailand from Myanmar. Most people cross the official way, but our camera captures someone waiting across the border, directly under the immigration bridge, and the eyes of officials. As he arrives, a box is mysteriously tossed from above. Who knows what illegal goods it could hold? With loose immigration and customs controls, there are many ways to smuggle endangered animal parts across an international border. Smugglers have been doing it with other big cats for decades. But with fewer than 7,000 tigers left in the wild today, tiger parts are harder to find in markets like this one. Experts believe that clouded leopards have become the next cat of choice in the illegal trade. The canines of cloudeds are torn out and sold as exotic jewelry. Their skins are used to make clothes. Some men believe that eating the flesh of cloudeds will increase their strength. And sometimes, clouded leopards are even sold alive. In an illegal animal market in Vietnam, this young cub was for sale. Its price? A thousand dollars. Almost twice the average annual income in Vietnam. The ultimate fate of this cub will never be known. Today, all signs point to the fact that clouded leopards are being bought, smuggled, and sold in greater and greater numbers. And that's what's driving the men who actually kill the cats. Poachers. We convinced these two to show us how they find and catch clouded leopards. But we had to agree not to identify them. These poachers hunt the cats, even though they know it could land them in prison for up to four years. The skin of a single clouded leopard can bring them $50. Roughly the same as the average weekly wage in Thailand. Movement in a nearby tree catches their attention. The hunt is on. They're hoping it's a clouded leopard. This time, it wasn't a clouded. But an oriental pied hornbill. Poachers kill them to eat their flesh. They're not yet on the endangered list, but could be soon if the killings continue. The reason these hunters are more successful than researchers like Kanda at finding clouded leopards in the wild is a matter of time and money. With profit at stake, they're willing to stay in the forest for up to 20 days at a time. And they hunt day and night. At night, they will come closer. But in the day, they remain far away because they are afraid of you. The poachers are hoping a dead chicken will lure the cats to a trap. The poachers say they'll finish it off with a bullet to the head. The cat that the poachers kill means the loss of generations of potential clouded leopard offspring. That's why Dr. Jo Gail Howard's project at the Khao Yai Breeding Center is so crucial to the survival of the species. And after years of patient and often distressing work, there are signs of success. She's come to Thailand just in time to be on hand when a female cat named Num Fun delivers her cubs. It took a long time and a lot of patience. It paid off and hopefully she'll be a good mother. Three years ago, the team chose a mate for Num Fun, a male cat named Songkla. But it took almost two years for the cats to successfully mate. Num Fun survived her first breeding encounter and carried her cub to term. It was a thrilling triumph, but what followed was heartbreaking. Because Num Fun was not a tame animal and not used to people at all, she was very scared of people, really, and any noise. But even when the first cub came, she had never had a cub, so it scared her probably, and then she did kill the cub. The nervous, first-time mother killed her cub when it was born. Now that Num Fun is pregnant again, they're worried that the same thing could happen. Jo Gail and the team use a monitor to watch Num Fun from a distance, so they don't disturb her. Joe Gale is nervous, but excited. Num Fun is the first clouded leopard ever to be filmed giving birth. The natural and human forces that threaten clouded leopard survival leave many unanswered questions. How many more cats will poachers kill and sell before it's too late on lawless borders like this one? Will the major traders of clouded leopard skins ever be caught? Will researchers in the wild be able to observe even basic clouded leopard behaviors? Will scientists find ways to overcome the dangers that clouded leopards pose to themselves? Tonight, Jo Gail believes she may be closer to finding out. She at least now knows what to expect and hopefully will not freak out when she first sees that cub. Num Fun circles one last time. Tiny Tail emerges. Last time she gave birth to one, the nervous mother killed it. This time, Jo Gail and Rick hold their breath. As Num Fun delivers three more cubs, Gail sees Num Fun nursing and cleaning her cubs, calmly. It's exactly what she was hoping for. The cubs are safe. After three decades of trying to overcome the challenges of breeding cloudeds, The safe birth of Numfun's cubs is evidence that scientists are finally getting closer to being able to save clouded leopards. In captivity, one day, the wild. The time has come for Conda to collect the film from her cameras. The camera traps have worked. Their pictures bring alive a nighttime world that few humans will ever see for themselves. A pair of porcupines, a curious civet, a barking deer. All potential Clouded Leopard prey. Clouded Leopard competitors too. An Asian Jackal. A Malayan Sun Bear. The cameras have even caught armed poachers. And Clouded Leopards. This one looks like a full-grown male. Perhaps it was searching for food. Or tracking a mate. Or even trying to evade poachers. At least now, Conda has concrete evidence that Clouded Leopards are still out there. And she's hopeful that one day she will actually see one for herself.