Cats

I have seen another clouded leopard. It was regal, lying on a low branch waiting for a prey to walk under it along the trail. As it often happened to me before, I “somehow” perceived its presence (not sure if it is some instinctive warning system). Very large. I pretended not to have seen it, turned around and quickly got my camera out, but when I turned again (5 seconds later) it had vanished, like a ghost, not a sound, not a trace (apart from claw marks on a trunk).

Frustrated, I kept searching for my siamangs, then decided to wait under a feeding tree they often went to. As I sat there carving my new project (a hornbill), I looked around and saw another cat, peacefully resting 12m from me! We spent about a whole hour sitting like that, respecting and appreciating each other, then he stood up, looked around and left walking beside me. I now know that it was a marbled cat, an extremely rare cat of which virtually nothing is known. Apparently only another researcher has ever had a comparable experience (after spending days on a hideout, and then scare the cat away with the shutter noise of the first shot). It was a memorable experience, something that can in an instant erase tons of frustrations and bad moments of this period.

Few weeks later, two students from Massachusetts came to study small cats (all felids except from tigers), and there it was the dilemma: they are nice people (and fellow researchers) and I wanted to help them, but at the same time I really didn’t like the idea of them trapping and sedating the animals that honored me with such great sightings..