New Leopard is Spotted

A LEOPARD from the Borneo rainforest has become nature’s newest species more than 100 years after it was discovered.

DNA analysis has shown that the clouded leopard is not, as had been thought, identical to clouded leopards from mainland South- East Asia, Scientists have counted at least 40 key genetic differences making the cats almost as distinct as lions are from tigers.

The research, part of WWF’s Heart of Borneo conservation project, brings to more than 50 the number of new species to have emerged from the island’s jungles in the last year. They include two tree frogs and 30 fish, among them a catfish with an adhesive belly which can stick to rocks.

(c) 2007 Daily Mail; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.