A kitten of the endangered Tsushima leopard cat was born last week at a zoo in Yokohama, near Tokyo, marking the first time the species has been successfully bred by artificial insemination in Japan, the Environment Ministry has said.
The wild cat species endemic to Tsushima Island in southwest Nagasaki Prefecture has seen its population decline to some 100 from about 300 in the 1960s.
Born on March 18 at Yokohama's Zoorasia, the kitten weighed about 120 grams and is being fed by zookeepers, according to the ministry and the zoo. The sex of the kitten has yet to be confirmed.
Mami, the mother, was inseminated via a laparoscope from December and was confirmed pregnant in early March.
Under the ministry's conservation program, a total of 27 leopard cats, including the newborn kitten, are now being reared at nine facilities in Japan.
The ministry is also supporting efforts to preserve their habitat and release back into the wild those cats caught for their own protection after being involved in traffic accidents and other problems.
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