The clouded leopard is the sister taxon to other pantherine cats, having genetically diverged 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago.

Today, the clouded leopard is locally extinct in Singapore, Taiwan, and possibly also in Hainan Island and Vietnam.

Felis nebulosa was proposed by Edward Griffith in 1821 who first described a skin of a clouded leopard that was brought alive from Guangdong in China to the menagerie at Exeter Exchange in London.

[3] Felis macrosceloides proposed by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1841 was a clouded leopard specimen from Nepal.

[8] Felis diardi proposed by Georges Cuvier in 1823 was based on a clouded leopard skin from Java.

[16] The clouded leopard is the sister taxon to all other members of the Pantherinae, diverging 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago, based on analysis of their nuclear DNA.

[14] The clouded leopard from mainland Asia reached Borneo and Sumatra via a now submerged land bridge probably during the Pleistocene, when populations became isolated during periods of global cooling and warming.

Its ulnae and radii are not fused, which also contributes to a greater range of motion when climbing trees and stalking prey.

[21] The clouded leopard is often referred to as a "modern-day sabre-tooth" because it has the largest canines in proportion to its body size.

[18] The clouded leopard occurs from the Himalayan foothills in Nepal, Bhutan and India to Myanmar, southeastern Bangladesh, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and to south of the Yangtze River in China.

[22] Since then, the clouded leopard has been recorded in Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park and in Annapurna Conservation Area.

[25] In India, it occurs in the states of Sikkim, northern West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in the Meghalaya subtropical forests.

[26][27][28][29] In Pakke Tiger Reserve, a clouded leopard was photographed in semi-evergreen forest at an elevation of 144 m (472 ft).

[30] In Sikkim, clouded leopards were photographed by camera traps at elevations of 2,500–3,720 m (8,200–12,200 ft) between April 2008 and May 2010 in the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve.

[37] In Thailand, it inhabits relatively open, dry tropical forest in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary and closed-forest habitats in Khao Yai National Park.

[38][39][40] In Laos, it was recorded in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area in dry evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.

[44] The last confirmed record of a Formosan clouded leopard dates to 1989, when the skin of a young individual was found in the Taroko National Park.

[45] It was not recorded during an extensive camera trapping survey conducted from 1997 to 2012 in more than 1,450 sites inside and outside Taiwanese protected areas.

Early accounts depict it as a rare, secretive, arboreal, and nocturnal inhabitant of dense primary forest.

Captive clouded leopards have been observed to scent mark by spraying urine and rubbing their heads on prominent objects.

[19] Their vocalisations include a short high-pitched meow call, a loud crying call, both emitted when a cat is trying to locate another one over a long or short distance; they prusten and raise their muzzle when meeting each other in a friendly manner; when aggressive, they growl with a low-pitched sound and hiss with exposed teeth and wrinkled nose.

[19] Pocock presumed that it is adapted for preying upon herbivorous mammals of considerable bulk because of its powerful build, long canines and the deep penetration of its bites.

[17] In Thailand, clouded leopards have been observed preying on southern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina),[50] Indian hog deer (Axis porcinus), Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis), Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus macrourus), Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica) and Berdmore's ground squirrel (Menetes berdmorei).

[56] Clouded leopard require larger areas of intact forest than are present in many parts of their range.

Hunting is banned in Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

[1] International Clouded Leopard Day is celebrated each year on 4 August since 2018 in zoos and conservation organizations all over the world.

[62] Early captive-breeding programs involving clouded leopards were not successful, largely due to ignorance of their courtship behaviour.

[64] In March 2011, two breeding females at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere gave birth to three cubs, which were raised by zookeepers.

The breeding pair was brought from the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand in an ongoing education and research exchange program.