An Asian species subspecies 'extinct'

Cloud Formosan newspaper, an endemic animal on the island of Taiwan, may have disappeared forever.

Chiang Po-jen, a Taiwanese biologist, said that the likelihood of people seeing Formosan clouds is very low, Livescience reported.

Taiwan Island is the only place where humans can see the Formosan cloud newspaper. (Photo: wikispace.com)

"Maybe some leopard formosan Formosan are still alive, but we think the ability of people to see them in large numbers is extremely low," CNA news agency quoted Chiang.

Animal experts from the US and Taiwan have been searching for Formosan cloud newspaper since 2001, but they do not see any children. To search for them, they installed about 1,500 infrared cameras and odor traps on Taiwan's mountains.

"Now we can only admire a stuffed leopard in the Taiwan Museum. Two other clouded leopards are living in Taipei zoo, but they are imported from Southeast Asia" , Liu Jian-nan, a zoologist said.

Cloud newspaper (Neofelis nebulosa) is distributed from the Himalayas to Southeast Asia and China. They have cloud stains on their fur. Their fangs are also larger than other cats. Formosan newspaper is a subspecies of cloud leopard. Conservationists say poaching and deforestation are the two main causes of the rapid decline of Formosan newspapers.