Overview
- Camera traps recorded 29 detections in 2024–2025 in Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary, the first confirmed records in Thailand since 1995.
- Images included a female with a cub, signaling local reproduction for a species that typically produces only one offspring.
- Officials announced the rediscovery on Thailand’s Wildlife Protection Day after what Panthera describes as the largest-ever survey of the species.
- The flat-headed cat remains classified as Endangered by the IUCN, with an estimated 2,500 adult individuals worldwide and continuing pressure from wetland loss, overfishing, hunting, and disease from domestic animals.
- Researchers caution that population size is hard to gauge because the cats lack distinctive markings and inhabit fragmented peat swamps and freshwater mangroves.