The most secretive big cat is the clouded leopard. It is the smallest, too, weighing about forty pounds. It is an agile climber, often spending time in the trees. It has short, powerful legs for climbing branches and large paws for gripping, as well as a long tail for balance. Twisting ankles allow it to descend trunks headfirst like a squirrel and hang upside down from branches like a sloth. The clouded leopard hunts monkeys in the canopy and wild pigs on the forest floor. Relative to its body size, its canine teeth are the longest of any big cat. They are almost like those of the extinct saber-toothed cats. But exactly how they are used for hunting is not certain. People so rarely see these cats that we still do not know a lot about them.
You can see this clouded leopard’s canine teeth in the front of its mouth and carnassial teeth at the back. Clouded leopards live in Southeast Asia as far north as the foothills of the Himalayas. Another type of clouded leopard, called the Sunda clouded leopard, is found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
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