US EditionElusive wild cat last seen in 1995, feared extinct, rediscovered in Thailand
Camera traps recorded 29 sightings including a female with a cub, confirming local breeding and a relatively high concentration of endangered flat-headed cats in southern Thailand.
- 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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Conservation news
ecotopical.comYear-end ‘good news’ as flat-headed cats reappear in Thailand after 29-year absence
Flat-headed cats haven’t gone extinct in Thailand after all. A population is clinging on in the peat swamp forests of Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary, in the country’s south, after eluding detection for nearly three decades. Camera traps set up by wildcat NGO Panthera and Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) picked up 13 records of flat-headed cats (Prionailurus planiceps) in 2024 and a further 16…
This species of cat has been observed about 30 times, by camera, over the last two years, in Thailand. A first in three decades.
Flat-headed cats are among the rarest and most endangered wild cats in the world.
One of World’s Rarest Cats Has Finally Resurfaced
A strange looking Southeast Asian cat went missing in Thailand about 30 years ago. The flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) is unmistakable with its long, flattened forehead and short, tubular body. Other odd features include webbed toes for getting around in their preferred habitat of wetlands and peat swamps. Despite their diminutive size (just half the size of a house cat), flat-headed cats rank as apex predators in their boggy ecosystems…
The flat-headed cat, a rare feline previously considered extinct in Thailand, has been re-sighted in the Asian country after nearly 30 years. This was reported by the conservation NGO Panthera. Flat-headed cats, roughly the size of an average domestic cat, are among the rarest and most endangered wild felines in the world.
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