Clouded Leopard

Open encyclopedia reference

The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), also called mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat that has large dusky-grey blotches and irregular spots and stripes reminiscent of clouds. Its head-and-body length ranges from 68.6 to 108 cm (27.0 to 42.5 in) with a 61 to 91 cm (24 to 36 in) long tail, which it uses for balancing when moving in trees. The clouded leopard was first described in 1821 on the basis of a skin of an individual from China. It is the sister taxon to other pantherine cats, having genetically diverged 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago. It inhabits dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through Northeast India and Bhutan to mainland Southeast Asia into South China. It can climb down vertical tree trunks head first, rests in trees during the day and hunts by night on the forest floor. The wild population is thought to be in decline, with fewer than 10,000 adults and no more than 1,000 in any subpopulation.

Wikipedia contributors, Clouded leopard; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:24:36.390865+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Neofelis nebulosa (Griffith, 1821)

Name authority

(Griffith, 1821)

Common name

Clouded Leopard

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Carnivora

Family

Felidae

Genus

Neofelis

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderCarnivora Bowdich, 1821
12. suborderFeliformia Kretzoi, 1945
13. familyFelidae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
14. subfamilyPantherinae Pocock, 1917
15. genusNeofelis Gray, 1867
16. speciesNeofelis nebulosa (Griffith, 1821)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Neofelis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 41 records assigned to Felidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=183809 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:46H7Z. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.