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4 kittens born to two pairs of clouded leopards at a wild animal park in Kent are making their public debut.

The two male and two female kittens, who have not yet been named, were born at Howletts, near Canterbury in April.

Fathers Nanyo and Ben were born at the park, which has had clouded leopards since the 1960s.

Their mothers, Nhi-Ha and Mandalay, were introduced as part of a breeding programme designed to help ensure the survival of the vulnerable cats.

“Generally, breeding of these animals is especially difficult in captivity,” said head of the cat section, Jim Hassie.

“But with 23 clouded leopards, Howletts Wild Animal Park is one of the very few zoos to have been successful in its breeding programme with no less than 30 births since 2003.”

The leopard, which is found in the tropical forests of southern China, south east Asia, Sumatra and Borneo, is one of the largest members of the cat family in Asia.

The animal is threatened with extinction in the wild because of destruction of its forest habitat and hunting for its pelt and for use in Chinese medicine.

The leopard is listed as “vulnerable” to extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species.

The Word Wide Fund for nature’s news centre carried a report this week detailing how Indigenous training offers hope of cutting poaching in Primorye:

An indigenous people famed for helping early Siberian explorers survive in the wild are now passing on their knowledge to the guardians of one of the world’s most porous borders.

Leading the training effort in north east Russia is Vasilii Dunkai, leader of the scouting school in Krasnyi Yar in northern Primorye.

The scouting school was originally conceived to teach school children survival skills and pass on ancestral knowledge but the latest batch of students includeds Russian border patrol forces.

Dunkai, who was joined by Pavel Fomenko, WWF biodiversity conservation coordinator in the region, specifically sought to explain how to minimise conflicts between humans and wildlife, such as tigers and leopards native to the region, and to identify signs of human and animal activity.

It is a role recalling the most celebrated of the Nanai people, Dersu Uzala, the hunter who passed into Russian folkore teaching the explorer Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev how to survive Siberia in the early 20th Century.

“All of southwestern Primorye is monitored by the border forces, making them responsible for the protection of rare breeds of species such as the Amur leopard,” explains Pavel Fomenko, WWF biodiversity conservation coordinator for the region.

“I hope that the lessons learnt by the soldiers will help to protect Russia’s valuable biological resources.”

The border patrol plays a key role in seizing and preventing the delivery of valuable animal parts, such as tiger bones used for traditional medicine, across the border into China.

“Monitoring this border region, which stretches for 300 kilometres, is an extremely difficult task,” said Fomenko.

“Annually, thousands of snares are removed, and hundreds of Chinese poachers are detained,” he added.

Silvercore Cats, located in Eastampton, New Jersey, currently have a litter (3 males / 2 females) of brown spotted bengal kittens available. Kittens were born on July 29 and will be TICA registered, vaccinated and come with a health guarantee. See breeder listing for further info, photos of the dam and sire and contact details.

One of our advertisers has brought to our attention that they have been contacted recently by someone attempting to use the ‘certified cheque’ scam. The text of the email is below: (Besides the method of payment, the broken english/poor grammer is also suspect, as is the fact that “KITTEN” is in uppercase throughout the email, suggesting that it is a standard email where the item to be ‘purchased’ has simply been changed using a search/replace thgroughout the text)

“I’m interested in immediate purchase of your KITTEN After several consideration over the advert placed on the website on ,i really shown interest in it and would really want to issue the payment in form of Certified check.Will you be accepting a Certified check? The Certified check that will be drawn by my issuer in the states she is owing me this funds would include the cost for shipping this KITTEN it will include on the same Certified check..Please contact me asap via email for futher questions as regards this transaction if you really show willingness in selling this KITTEN asap.Thank You and I am expecting your urgent response today for your mailing address and your fullname and your contact phone number so that the payment can be issued out asap and note that my shipping company will do the pick up of this kitten you dont need to be worry for the shipping . You ought to get back to me with your FULL NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS ALSO YOUR PHONE NUMBER.Awaiti ng your quick respondse asap so the check will be mail out overnight shipment to you”

Another example is below:

“Am seeking to buy your cats/kittens could you kindly contact me via email so we can
proceed with the transactions, so i can prepare for the shipping and payment for the
pet. Am someone that love pets and ready to adopt any of your pets which you are
willing to rehome. I spend most of my incomes on pets. My shipping company will come
and pick the pet up once we can make a seal on rehome/sales.”

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