Rare Chinese Cat Captured on Film

[Guest guest]

National Geographic News

August 30, 2007

 

Photos:

 

Triggered by body heat, a remote camera recently

captured this image of the elusive Chinese mountain

cat at about 12,300 feet (3,750 meters) on the edge of

the Tibetan Plateau in China's Sichuan Province.

A total of eight images of the feline represent the

first time the mountain cat has been photographed in

the wild, said Jim Sanderson, a cat specialist with

the Wildlife Conservation Network who led the team

that snapped the rare shots. A paper about the cat

will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal

Science.

 

Sanderson is hoping that the new images will reveal

some of the secretive habits that have kept the

creature a mystery to scientists for nearly a century.

 

 

" Pandas go for a million [u.S.] dollars a year to rent

and are very well protected by Chinese law, but there

is virtually no protection for this cat, " he told

National Geographic News.

 

" There's no interest in its conservation because it's

poorly known, but now perhaps this will change. "

 

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