69 Rare And Elusive Animal Pics Caught On Camera In The “Amazon Of Asia”

The beautiful markings on their coat make clouded leopards a prime target for the illegal wildlife trade. They are trafficked alive as exotic pets, and their pelts are sold illegally for decoration and luxury clothing. It is thought that clouded leopards are also k***ed for their teeth, claws and bones, which are passed off as tiger parts.

Affectionately known as pangopups, baby pangolins hitch a ride on their mum’s tail. The critically endangered Sunda pangolin, pictured here, is one of eight species of pangolin. These scaly anteaters are the world’s most trafficked mammal, targeted for their meat and scales.

Asian elephants need room to roam. Forest fragmentation is arguably the single greatest threat they face because it increases their exposure to poaching and to human-elephant conflict. Protecting and connecting the remaining forested landscapes in their range is critical to their long-term survival.

Named for their exquisitely patterned coats, marbled cats are expert tree climbers. Their thick, bushy and unusually long tail serves as a counterbalance as they move through the forest canopy in search of birds and squirrels.

A mother and baby stump-tailed macaques perch on a fallen tree. Distinguished by their short, hairless tail, stump-tailed macaques spend much of their time feeding on fallen fruit on the forest floor, though they are perfectly capable climbers.

Named for their distinctive orange-yellow chest patch, these play-fighting sun bears have poor eyesight and hearing, but a powerful sense of smell. Their claws are strong enough to rip open a concrete-hard termite mound or excavate a bees’ nest. Sun bears are threatened by deforestation and, in particular, poaching for their gall bladder and paws to supply the illegal wildlife trade.

More typically seen in flight, or feeding on fruit high in the forest canopy, great hornbills play a crucial role as seed dispersers. This and other hornbill species are sometimes called ‘barometers of biodiversity’ because the presence of these threatened birds is a strong indicator of a healthy forest.

The Asian leopard cat, pictured here with its rodent prey, is unfortunately heavily traded and has become the feline equivalent of the canary in the coal mine, acting as an early-warning system for the surging black market in exotic pets. There is growing concern about the numbers being illegally traded, with wild-caught individuals being bred with domestic cats to produce hybrid Bengal cats.

A male peacock-pheasant attempts to impress watching females by flaunting his iridescent ocelli (eyespots) and strutting his stuff on the dance floor he has created among the forest leaf litter.

Looking like a bizarre cross between goat and antelope, the shy, elusive serow is a medium-sized mammal that favours rocky, forested hillsides. Blackish in colour with a conspicuous mane, a slight beard and a pair of short horns, it is targeted by hunters for its meat and horns.

The Annamite striped rabbit was unknown to science until 1996, when several dead specimens were seen in a market in Laos. Very little is known about this intriguing but endangered species, which is rarely encountered in the wild and has been captured on camera only a handful of times.

The gargantuan gaur is the largest of all wild cattle species. Seemingly a cow on steroids, it’s the bovine equivalent of a musclebound gym bunny. These formidable animals still survive in small, fragmented herds in mountainous forests in Southeast Asia.

The wild boar is one of the most widespread mammals in the world but is thought to have originated in the forests of Southeast Asia. This intimate insight into wild boar family life shows an extended family group of sows and their young – known as a ‘sounder’.