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Flat-Headed Cat Not Seen in Thailand for Almost 30 Years Is Rediscovered
Camera traps recorded 29 sightings, including a female with a cub, confirming local breeding of the endangered flat-headed cat in protected southern Thailand wetlands.
- Friday's announcement said Panthera Thailand confirmed flat-headed cats in Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary, the first sightings since 1995, with detections in 2024 and 2025.
- Conservation assessments note the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the flat-headed cat as Endangered and considered 'possibly extinct' in Thailand due to habitat loss, land conversion, agricultural expansion, and disease risks.
- Using fishing-cat study lessons, researchers used camera traps from Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to capture footage of a female flat-headed cat with cub, showing reproduction.
- Panthera said the findings will feed into a Panthera-led International Union for Conservation of Nature assessment expected in early 2026, and Atthapol Charoenchansa, Director General of Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, called the rediscovery a significant conservation win urging expanded searches.
- The flat-headed cat is Southeast Asia's smallest wild cat, weighing around 4.4 pounds with webbed feet for wetland and peat-swamp forest habitats, but monitoring remains hard because individuals lack distinctive markings and favor nocturnal, inaccessible wetlands.
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38 Articles
38 Articles
Researchers have succeeded in taking photos of the flat-headed cat in Thailand. The nocturnal wild cat was last sighted in the Southeast Asian country in 1995.
·Germany
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Researchers in southern Thailand have rediscovered a wild cat that may have died out. The flat-headed cat, which had been spotted in the country last in 1995, was photographed in a protected area by means of camera traps.
·Germany
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources38
Leaning Left5Leaning Right5Center11Last UpdatedBias Distribution52% Center
Bias Distribution
- 52% of the sources are Center
52% Center
L 24%
C 52%
R 24%
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