Urgent need for its conservation,
say researchers
Date: May 4, 2016
Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin
e.V. (FVB)
New insights into the
evolutionary history of the Javan leopard have been gained by new research. The
results of the study confirm that Javan leopards are clearly distinct from
Asian leopards and probably colonized Java around 600,000 years ago via a land
bridge from mainland Asia. The study highlights the urgent need for concerted
conservation efforts to preserve the Javan leopard from extinction.
An international team of
researchers from Germany and Indonesia has discovered new insights into the
evolutionary history of the Javan leopard. The results of the study confirm
that Javan leopards are clearly distinct from Asian leopards and probably
colonised Java around 600,000 years ago via a land bridge from mainland Asia.
The study, published in the scientific journal Journal of Zoology,
highlights the urgent need for concerted conservation efforts to preserve the
Javan leopard from extinction.
Scientists from the German
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Tierpark Berlin
(Germany), Taman Safari Indonesia, Potsdam University (Germany) and
Conservation International Indonesia (Indonesia) worked in close collaboration
to answer the question whether the Javan leopard is a separate subspecies of
the leopard, as this would heighten the need for efforts to improve its
viability through active conservation measures. The results show that Javan
leopards diverged from mainland Asian leopards in the Middle Pleistocene
approximately 600,000 years ago and have already reached a degree of genetic
distinctiveness which clearly warrants the classification of Javan leopards as
a subspecies (Panthera pardus melas)
of the leopard (Panthera pardus).
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