Predator’s adorable kittens found abandoned in Thailand — then came rescue
A set of triplet kittens are getting a second chance at life after they were separated from their mother or abandoned.
Wildlife officials in southwestern Thailand received a call from locals on a forest protection hotline after they spotted three leopard cat kittens on their own, according to an April 29 Facebook post from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
Officials then called in Sathawit Suwanrat, the head of the Kathu Wildlife Sanctuary, to collect the kittens, according to the post.
The three kittens had been found weak since being separated from their mother, the department said, and were taken to the veterinary care team for examination.
All three kittens will be kept for rehabilitation with the eventual goal of returning them to the wild, the department said.
Suwanrat thanked the public for reporting the kittens instead of keeping or selling them, according to the post, as they will be properly cared for now that they are at the sanctuary.
Leopard cats are a species of feline about the size of a housecat but with much longer legs, according to the Big Cat Rescue. Their coats are dotted with black spots, much like a leopard, and they have dark rings around their tails, the organization says.
Leopard cats are not endangered and are found throughout southeast Asia, but their nocturnal lifestyle makes seeing them a special sight, Big Cat Rescue says.
The species has been cross-bred with domestic cats to create a now recognized domestic species, the Bengal cat, posing a threat to the species, according to the organization.
Leopard cats are a protected species in Thailand and are threatened by habitat loss and poaching, the department said on Facebook.
The Kathu Wildlife Sanctuary is a collection of wildlife parks in the Kathu district, a peninsula in southwestern Thailand.
Chat GPT, an AI chatbot, was used to translate the Facebook post from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Predator’s adorable kittens found abandoned in Thailand — then came rescue."
