Big cat discovery in Kamphaeng Phet’s national park
In a Facebook post on Thursday (July 9), Kamphaeng Phet’s Khlong Lan National Park reported that camera traps set up in the park to track the population of tigers managed to capture the sighting of a black panther and leopard instead.
“The appearance of the panther and leopard prove that the forest has become more abundant and attracted the return of these animals after no sightings were reported for several years,” the post said.
“This is the fifth time this year that we have set camera traps, and though we haven’t found any tigers, the sighting of the panther and leopard gives us hope that the Khlong Lan forest can still be home to endangered wildlife.”
The 420 square kilometre Khlong Lan National Park covers the Dawna mountain range in Kamphaeng Phet’s Muang and Khlong Lan districts.
“The population of tigers in Thailand’s forests has been dropping significantly over the past decades and they have been classified as an endangered species,” the post said. “The three main reasons for this is diminishing natural habitat, hunting and lack of food.”
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in cooperation with WWF Thailand has set up camera traps covering 1,200sqkm of Mae Wong and Khlong Lan national parks, which are believed to have the most tigers in the country.
