“Mysterious carnivore discovered in Borneo’s forests.” So reads the latest headline on the web site of the World Wildlife Fund [1], whose researchers’ camera traps captured two photos of a strange cat in the central forests of Borneo. The cat is “slightly larger than a domestic cat with dark red fur and a long, bushy tail.”

Wildlife biologists use camera traps – motion-sensor cameras set out in forests and other wild landscapes – to get a better understanding of animals’ behavior and numbers. Recently, cameras set by the Wildlife Conservation Society [2] in Iran caught a whole family of extremely rare Asiatic cheetahs [3]. The WWF cameras in Borneo snapped two nighttime pics of the mysterious feline, which locals who saw the photos said they had never before encountered.

Unfortunately, according to the WWF, Indonesia announced plans this summer to create the world’s largest palm oil plantation in the surrounding region, covering an area half the size of the Netherlands. WWF’s Heart of Borneo [4] campaign is attempting to protect this area. Scientists are now worried they might never have a chance to study – or protect – this potentially new species if the land is not preserved.

Discovery of new species of relatively large mammals is extremely rare. Earlier this year, WCS scientists found a new species of monkey in Tanzania [5], the first new monkey discovered in Africa in two decades.

Photo credit: WWF