"Just last month leopards were declared extinct in Laos. They have disappeared from Vietnam and are likely to go extinct in Cambodia. Tigers also have vanished from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Other cat species are not faring much better, falling victim to poachers’ snares and developers’ roads, often ending up in illegal wildlife trade markets in the notorious Golden Triangle where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet. However, within the Greater Mekong Region, there is one area that is something of a haven for cat species – a landscape the size of Cambodia straddling Thailand and Myanmar with a name that is something of a mouthful – Dawna Tenasserim. Here in the mountains and jungles of a not widely known landscape, one-fifth of the world’s cat species are hanging on while the world outside (and inside at times) does everything it can to ensure their demise. Some of the stars of this show are familiar, such as tigers and leopards, celebrated far and wide in poetry, literature and Disney films. The others are not so well known, such as Asiatic golden cats, marbled cats, clouded leopards, jungle cats and leopard cats. That’s seven of the 36 known cat species. And it’s quite possible that the highly elusive fishing cat lives in this landscape, bringing the number to eight..."