Biology Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2007
Publication Title
Frontiers in Zoology
ISSN
1742-9994
Volume
4
Issue/No.
15
First Page
1
Last Page
10
Abstract
Background
The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is one of the least known cat species and depletion of their forested habitats puts it under heavy pressure. Recently reclassification of Bornean clouded leopards (N. nebulosa diardi) to species level (N.diardi) was suggested based on molecular and morphological evidence. Since the genetic results were based solely on three Bornean samples we re-evaluated this partition using additional samples of Bornean clouded leopards (N = 7) and we were also able to include specimens from Sumatra (N = 3), which were lacking in previous analysis.
Results
We found strong support for the distinction between N. nebulosa and N. diardi based on three fragments of mtDNA (900 bp) and 18 microsatellites. Forty-one fixed mitochondrial nucleotide differences and non-overlapping allele sizes in 8 of 18 microsatellite loci distinguished N. nebulosa and N. diardi. This is equivalent to the genetic divergence among recognized species in the genus Panthera. Sumatran clouded leopards clustered with specimens from Borneo, suggesting that Sumatran individuals also belong to N. diardi. Additionally, a significant population subdivision was apparent among N. diardi from Sumatra and Borneo based on mtDNA and microsatellite data.
Conclusion
Referring to their origin on two Sunda Islands we propose to give N. diardi the common name "Sundaland clouded leopard". The reduced gene flow between Borneo and Sumatra might suggest the recognition of two subspecies of N. diardi. Based on this reclassification of clouded leopards not only species, but also the populations on Borneo and Sumatra should be managed separately and a higher priority should be placed to protect the different populations from extinction.
NSUWorks Citation
Wilting, Andreas; Valerie A. Buckley-Beason; Heike Feldhaar; Jurgen Gadau; Stephen J. O'Brien; and K. Eduard Linsenmair. 2007. "Clouded Leopard Phylogeny Revisited: Support for Species Recognition and Population Division Between Borneo and Sumatra." Frontiers in Zoology 4, (15): 1-10. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facarticles/779
ORCID ID
0000-0001-7353-8301
ResearcherID
N-1726-2015
Comments
© 2007 Wilting et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.