ILOILO CITY – An endangered Visayan leopard cat was found dead in Antique province last week.
Reymon S. Aguirre, an agriculturist known as the online blogger “Bisayang Mangunguma,” found the animal locally known as “maral” lifeless on a mountain road in Laua-an town.
AGRICULTURIST Reymon S. Aguirre finds a lifeless Visayan leopard cat in Laua-an town, Antique province. The animal is listed as an endangered animal. (Bisayang Mangunguma)
Aguirre was on his way to work at the agricultural office of the Laua-an Municipal Hall when he came across the dead Visayan leopard cat in Barangay Bongbongan.
He documented what he found online.
“I wanted to create awareness. It’s already an endangered species,” Aguirre told Manila Bulletin in a phone interview on Monday, August 21.
Aguirre said that there is an indigenous people's group in the area.
Elders in the barangay said it used to be common practice for the indigenous people to hunt the maral and eaten as a delicacy.
Aguirre said the maral could have been a target for hunting and escaped until it died.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included the Visayan leopard cat in its Red List of endangered species.
The Visayan leopard cat is found in Panay, Negros, and Cebu.