Amazing sightings 1: clouded leopard

Or: “now they EAT my study animals??”

Well, I made probably the most amazing observation of this Indonesian experience. I heard a group of siamangs giving loud alarm calls, and thinking it would be elephants, I cautiously approached. And surprised a clouded leopard eating the youngest siamang of the group! He jumped away – well, we both did – and stared at me for some long 5 seconds, before bounding down a root and disappear in the undergrowth. My (many and conflicting) feelings: after the initial fright, when we stared at each other I was surprisingly not afraid, mainly because it was quite small. The body, without tail, less than 1m, and a nice, round, cattish and not altogether unfriendly face. I guess this is what most people say before losing an arm in an attempt to caress tigers in a zoo. Sadness for little Sandru, young promising siamang, though I didn’t know him very well (this is not one of my core groups). Sadness for the group, which is really unlucky, many of their youngs have already disappeared in the past (fate unknown), and they live in a poor area, destroyed by the 1997 forest fires. Disappointed for my own long-term research, as my sample size is further reduced. Excitement because as far as I know this has never been observed before. Guilt for the same reason (the greedy, cold scientist thinks about the steps in order to collect all of the relevant data, document every aspect of the event, be ready to answer all of the potential questions from colleagues and critics. Eh, empathizing and systemizing…)