The Nangunhe National Nature Reserve is located in Lincang City, Yunnan Province, along China’s south-western border with Myanmar. Historically, the Reserve harboured an intact large carnivore guild, including the Indochinese tiger Panthera tigris corbetti, Indochinese leopard Panthera pardus delacouri, clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, Asiatic golden cat Catopuma temminckii and marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata.

The Indochinese leopard, a subspecies restricted to mainland Southeast Asia, is now Critically Endangered, with its adult population estimated to be < 800 individuals globally. As an apex predator, it regulates prey populations and maintains ecosystem stability. From 2011 to 2021, camera traps in the Cangyuan sector of Nangunhe National Nature Reserve regularly detected Indochinese leopards, but the subspecies had not been recorded since 2021, raising fears that it was extirpated locally.

From March 2024 to April 2026, we deployed 40 camera traps across 20 5 × 5 km grid cells in the Reserve. On 19 January 2026, a camera captured a clear image of an adult male leopard in the Gengma sector, the first record in Gengma and the first detection in the Reserve in nearly 5 years.

The photograph was obtained near Gaohongyan Mountain (2,850 m elevation), in primary forest with negligible human disturbance that provides good habitat for large carnivores. Previously, leopard records were concentrated in the southern Cangyuan area bordering Myanmar, connected to populations across the border. Local forest rangers believe the disappearance of leopards from the Cangyuan area after 2021 is linked to cross-border poaching and disruptions caused by Covid-19.

This new finding confirms that the Indochinese leopard persists in Nangunhe National Nature Reserve, potentially with a distribution broader than previously documented. To secure any remnant population, we recommend systematic camera-trap surveys to estimate population size, distribution and habitat use, combined with transboundary conservation measures that restore and maintain connectivity between leopard populations in China and Myanmar.

Adult male Indochinese leopard Panthera pardus delacouri photographed by a camera trap on 19 January 2026 in the Gengma sector of Nangunhe National Nature Reserve, Yunnan Province, China (photo: Eco-Bridge Continental).

We thank the National Forestry and Grassland Administration for financial support through the project ‘Demonstration and Extension of Survey and Monitoring Technologies for Snow Leopard and other Large Felids’, the Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Lincang Municipal Forestry and Grassland Bureau, and the Yunnan Nangunhe National Nature Reserve Management and Protection Bureau for their support, and the Reserve’s staff for their assistance.