Clouded Leopard Awareness Education in Thailand

I recently received a report from FREELAND Foundation about their community outreach work supported by the CLP and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. These carnivore-based awareness programs are presented in communities around the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai World Heritage Site in Northeastern Thailand. They have especially targeted areas bordering the parks known to be ‘poacher origin hotspots’ where high numbers of poachers are known to reside.

The objectives of the awareness activities are:

• To increase awareness and understanding of the importance of carnivore and nature conservation among communities living near carnivore habitat.
• To reduce poaching, forest encroachment, and human-wildlife conflict immediately and in the long term by reaching at risk families through child education.
• To inspire children to study science and ecology and become Thailand's future conservation leaders.

During the school visits presenters discussed the wild cat species found in Thailand, the threats they face and their conservation efforts. FREELAND’s mobile outreach team conducted 28 awareness activities in 2010 to youth camps, school visits and villages. The activities reached nearly 3,000 people, of which 2,350 were in schools and communities adjacent to Thap Lan and in the corridor area where the park joins neighboring Khao Yai National Park.

Outreach activities varied by grade level but consisted of multi-media presentations and lectures, game-based interactions, plays, and music. For secondary school students, a more complicated introduction to ecology was delivered, with drama-type activities organized to give students an independent creative role in communication of key conservation

themes, such as the impacts of poaching. The Clouded Leopard's Secret bilingual storybooks were distributed to all schools after the activities and presenters utilized clouded leopard and tiger teaching resources such as costumes and skull replicas provided by Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium to engage and teach the students. Evaluation of the educational effectiveness of the programs demonstrated an improvement in the students’ awareness and understanding of the conservation messages presented.

We're very pleased to support the great work of FREELAND in increasing awareness of carnivores where it matters most!

Education Activities in Thailand

Check out this great video of the outreach activities conducted by the Freeland Foundation and featuring many of the educational resources provided to them by the CLP and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium!

Borneo Carnivore Education Workshop

I didn’t get a chance to do any more postings while we were traveling due to our remote locations and lack of Internet access. So now that we’re back, over the next week I will be catching up with reports on some of the activities we were involved in and information we gathered.

One of the primary reasons that Maureen and I traveled to Borneo was to conduct an education workshop to initiate a collaborative carnivore education strategy for Sabah. We wanted to bring together the major players in environmental education in Sabah and discuss ways to augment their current educational programming to also include messaging and activities on carnivores. This would also be the venue for delivering our carnivore education kits to our partner organizations.

 Canopy walkway at the RDC

 

The workshop was held on June 28 at the Rainforest Discovery Center outside of Sandakan. This is a beautiful facility on the edge of the Kapili-Sepilok Forest Reserve that is managed by the Sabah Department of Forestry. The RDC provides extensive environmental education programming and has an amazing network of trails and rainforest boardwalks allowing visitors a peak into the canopy. We really enjoyed touring this facility and were even lucky enough to spot a flock of endemic Borneo bristleheads and see giant flying squirrels on a later visit!

  Workshop icebreaker

Twenty people attended the workshop including RDC staff members; educators from the non-profit group, Hutan; a member of the Sabah Wildlife Department who conducts education at the zoo in Kota Kinabalu; staff from the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Center; and several field researchers. The group worked together great, tackling tasks such as identifying key carnivore conservation education issues, prioritizing audiences, and beginning the development of key education strategies. The meeting ended with a plan in place for each of the organizations to institute carnivore messaging in ways appropriate and achievable for within their current structure.

 

In addition, Maureen and I went over the contents of the carnivore education kits and demonstrated several of the activities. Participants were very pleased with the kits and are eager to use them in their programs. We appreciate the Point Defiance AAZK Chapter and the donors of the CLP for making it possible to provide these teaching resources.

 

I’m hopeful that this meeting was just a first step in a long-term collaboration to benefit carnivore education in Borneo. Our role is to facilitate a partnership in which we can all continue to share resources and utilize the expertise and programming of the members of our diverse groups. I’m encouraged by our progress so far and hope it will benefit some of the endangered wildlife of Sabah. Much thanks goes to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and the CLP for supporting this workshop.

  

Borneo Bound

This week, fellow CLP Board member Maureen O'Keefe and I are heading to Borneo to attend the Borneo Carnivore Symposium in Kota Kinabulu, Sabah, Malaysia. This meeting will bring together a host of field biologists and others interested in carnivore research and conservation. We are taking advantage of this gathering to host a workshop on carnivore education after the Symposium. The CLP and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium is hosting this workshop to plan the development of carnivore education in the region.

Additionally, Maureen and I will be delivering carnivore education kits to several non-profit conservation organizations. These kits will be used in their outreach programming to local communities. The kits contain a variety of carnivore and herbivore skull replicas and associated activities, a clouded leopard costume, books, coloring pages, and a carnivore card matching activity. These kits were funded by contributions to the CLP as well as a generous donation from the Point Defiance Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers.

Maureen and I will also be joining a small group of Symposium attendees on a post-conference trip to several protected areas to view wildlife and field study sites. After our time in Borneo we will also visit Kerinci National Park in Sumatra to deliver another kit and meet with park staff and educators there as well. We have a very full trip planned and hope it will be productive in advancing conservation efforts for clouded leopards and the other carnivores! I'll try to post a few updates from the road as online access allows.

Students Learn The Clouded Leopard's Secret

Students in two schools near Thailand's Thap Lan National Park were the first to receive copies of our new bilingual storybook, The Clouded Leopard's Secret. The students were presented the books as part of a wildlife education program conducted by outreach staff from the Freeland Foundation. the Clouded Leopard Project supports this outreach effort with funding, educational materials, and teaching aids such as the clouded leopard costume in the photo.

Clouded Leopard Storybook Published

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know I have long been talking about the bilingual clouded leopard storybook I've been working on. At long last, we have the published books, hot off the presses!

This 30 page storybook is written in both Thai and English and is being distributed free of charge to students in Thailand. Proceeds from the sale of the book support the development of educational materials and programming for communities living near crucial clouded leopard habitat.

The book takes the reader on a journey into Thailand's rainforest with a wildlife researcher to uncover the mysterious ways of the clouded leopard. We follow him as he discovers the secret to protecting this amazing wild cat in its tropical home. The story is supported by the amazing illustrations of Heather Hudson, a Seattle artist. We are both very pleased with the result of our collaboration!

A Malay/English verion of the book is currently being published in Borneo for distribution there as well. We anticipate that additional versions will also be produced in the near future.

If you'd like a copy, just visit the CLP's online store to purchase. We really appreciate the support!

Clouded Leopard Teachers' Guide Published in Sumatra

Communities in Sumatra will gain a better appreciation and knowledge of their island's rare wild cats through use of the new Indonesian version of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium/CLP's Wild Cats Educators' Guide. The funding, translation, and publication of this guide was managed by felid biologist Iding Achmad Haidir who works in Kerinci Seblat National Park. I met Iding in January 2009 during the International Clouded Leopard Conservation Summit we organized in Bangkok. Funds raised for the Summit included support for bringing biologists conducting field studies on clouded leopards and other Southeast Asian felids; Iding was the recipient of one of those grants. It was great to meet Iding and observe his great enthusiasm for promoting wild cat conservation. With committed young conservationists like Iding on the job, clouded leopards and the other cats of Asia have a better shot at a secure future!

The Clouded Leopard's Secret Storybook Nears Completion!

After several years of planning and production, our bilingual storybook The Clouded Leopard's Secret is nearing completion. The last of the artwork was just completed, the translation is done, and we expect the layout to be finished soon so we can go to print. The book will be a great tool for teaching students in Thailand about clouded leopard field research and will hopefully inspire conservation action or perhaps even help nurture the next generation of scientists! We plan for this book to serve as a starting point for a comprehensive wild cat curriculum that will be distributed widely in clouded leopard range countries.

Clouded Leopard Storybook Update

After several years in the making, the bilingual (Thai/English) storybook, The Clouded Leopard's Secret, is nearing completion. Artist Heather Hudson has just a few more pieces to complete before we turn the project over to the graphic designer to complete the layout. After printing the book will be piloted in Thailand before wider distribution. We also plan to print a Malaysian version right away for use in Sabah, Borneo in conjunction with the Borneo Wild Cat and Clouded Leopard Project supported by the CLP. We look forward to learning how students in clouded leopard range countries respond to the messages in the book!

Storybook Art Update

I realized I haven't provided an update lately on our progress with The Clouded Leopard's Secret, the bilingual storybook we are producing for use in Thailand. Our artist, Heather Hudson, is making good progress with the illustrations. Isn't she doing a great job?! I can't wait for the finished product. After meeting with conservationists in Borneo this summer we now hope to produce the book in Malay too for use in Sabah. It will be exciting to get the book into the hands of students in Asia to help teach them more about the science of wildlife research.

Leopard or Not?

Hi everyone, my name is Corinne and I'm a Seasonal Animal Care Technician at Point Defiance. I've worked at PDZA with Karen for 4 years now and I've definitely fallen in love with clouded leopards. I was reading a newsletter put out by the Snow Leopard Trust which briefly stated that snow leopards are not true leopards. I've heard this said about Cloudies as well, and I set out to research why this is. I started by looking up the definition of a leopard. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a leopard as, "a large strong cat of southern Asia and Africa that is adept at climbing and is usually tawny or buff with black spots arranged in rosettes." I was a little disappointed with this definition because clouded and snow leopards are both found in Asia, are both adept at climbing and have black spots arranged in rosettes. So I went on to look up cat morphology. San Diego Zoo's website, www.sandiegozoo.org, had fact sheets on all three of these cats.

Leopard, Wildlife Conservation Society

Snow Leopard, International Snow Leopard Trust

Clouded Leopard

Clouded leopards are generally smaller in size with larger, uneven rosettes. Snow Leopards are known for their thick fur coat that keeps them warm in freezing climates. Leopards are unique in that they have eight subspecies. I also found quite a few similarities; all three of these cats are considered agile, are endangered, and they are among the top predators in their various habitats. Finally I read an article, "The Evolution of Cats," by Stephen J. O'Brien and Warren E. Johnson about the genetic connections between wild cats. Leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards are all grouped in the Panthera lineage which also includes lions and tigers. Clouded leopards are unique in Panthera because they lack the ability to roar due to the bone structure in their throat. By studying the clouded leopard's genome, scientists have found that clouded leopards and snow leopards are actually more closely related, while true leopards are linked more closely with jaguars. We really have to look beyond the spots to understand the connections between these wild cats.

Educational Outreach in Bangkok

On Earth Day, staff members from PeunPa visited the International School in Bangkok with outreach materials provided by the Clouded Leopard Project. The event had great participation from the students and school staff. The ISB has been a long term supporter of PeunPa's efforts to reduce trade in wildlife and wildlife products and encourage sustainable farming activities around Khao Yai National Park. Here are some photos from the event.

Grant Awards Announced

The Clouded Leopard Project and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium just announced the recipients of their Conservation Fund grants. Funds allocated through these grants are provided through a fundraising partnership of the Point Defiance Zoo Society, the Point Defiance Chapter of the American Association of ZooKeepers, and the Clouded Leopard Project. The CLP raises money on Zoo grounds for its conservation efforts through a visitor donation station and sales of clouded leopard merchandise in the Zoo gift shop. All funds raised on Zoo grounds become part of the PDZA Conservation Fund, reserved in a fund dedicated to supporting clouded leopard conservation efforts. (CLP also raises funds independently of the Zoo and allocates those monies separately.)

This year's clouded leopard grant funds were awarded to:

Andreas Wilting, Consequences of different forest management strategies for clouded leopards and other felids and viverrids in Sabah, Malaysia. We have supported Andreas for the last two years. You can read about his project on the Conservation and Research section of the website.

Andrew Hearn and Joanna Ross, Bornean Wild Cat and Clouded Leopard Project. This is a new project currently underway that we are supporting for the first time. Look for more information on the project coming soon, including some exciting news!

Anthony Giordano, Effects of severe deforestation and habitat fragmentation on clouded leopard status. This project is still in the planning stages. We hope to provide more information in the future.

Bhupendra Prasad Yadav, The status survey of clouded leopard in Langtang National Park, Nepal. This is a new project in a region not yet supported by the CLP.

PeunPa Community Outreach, Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. This is the third year we will be supporting the community outreach efforts here. They use materials provided by the CLP and will be distributing our clouded leopard storybook when it is complete.

We are very grateful for Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium's continuing commitment to and support of clouded leopard conservation efforts and congratulate all these worthy recipients. We look forward to sharing updates on their work in the future.

Another Young Clouded Leopard Crusader

Thanks to Madison of Orem, Utah for sharing news of her class project featuring clouded leopards. Madison researched and put together an in depth presentation and shared it with the other students in her second grade class.


Madison handcrafted a clouded leopard skull replica to show off the cat's unique teeth - awesome job, Madison!


She also created a diorama to demonstrate the clouded leopard's hunting method.


Thanks to Madison's dad for sharing news of her project and supporting our conservation efforts by purchasing Clouded Leopard Project patches for Madison's classmates. We love hearing of the talented kids who help spread the news about our cause. Keep up the great work Madison!

Clouded Leopard Storybook

I wanted to share an exciting project we are working on to increase awareness of both clouded leopards and clouded leopard field research in range countries. In partnership with Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and PeunPa we are creating a storybook entitled The Clouded Leopard's Secret. The book will be bilingual, with text in both English and Thai. We will begin with a small printing to create books that will be distributed free of charge to students in communities surrounding Thailand's Khao Yai National Park. After evauating the book's success in meeting our goals with the students, we hope to distribute them more widely. We also hope to translate them for use in other clouded leopard range countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The book chronicles the story of Sompong, a clouded leopard field researcher. (The name of our character honors the real Sompong, an ex-poacher turned conservationist.) The storyline follows Sompong as he uses a variety of research tools and techniques to learn about the elusive clouded leopards in his study area. He also meets with the local people to explain his research and the importance of conservation. The book is currently in the illustration and design phase; we hope to have it printed by the end of the year. We are still seeking funding for the production portion of the project.

We have the talents of a wonderful illustrator, Heather Hudson, who is doing a great job bringing our vision to life. I thought it might be interesting to chronicle the progression of the project by posting the evolution of one page of the book. First, Heather and I met to go over the text of the story and brainstorm how the illustrations might best capture the content. After that meeting, Heather sent rough thumbnail sketches. This page shows a mother clouded leopard who has been radiocollared for the study along with her three cubs. The mother is sniffing a human footprint in the forest with some nearby signs of logging activity.


Once the thumbnails were all in place, Heather started to refine the drawings. This is where we currently are in the process. Heather makes revisions based on our comments about the poses, anatomy, etc. Here is her first draft of the page:


We asked for some revisions to the cub on the right and decided we'd like to see mom's tail. She also needed her radio collar.


Once we are happy with the drawing, Heather adds some computerized color to determine the overall feel for the color palette of the illustration.

Once all the sketches are complete, Heather will actually paint them in oils so the finished product will have great depth and detail. Heather is an amazing artist and I am really confident that she is going to do a fantastic job. This is Heather's first time illustrating such a book. Her usual genre is the fantasy realm. (Visit her website at www.studiowondercabinet.com.) I think she is enjoying her work on the book. She says, "I'm incredibly excited to be promoting conservation and and to be working on a project featuring these beautiful and endangered cats."


In addition to using the books for conservation education, we will also sell them to the public on our website as well as through zoo gift shops in order to raise funds for conservation (and printing future editions). I can't wait for the finished product! I'll provide more updates and sneak peeks at the book as it progresses so stay tuned...