Ammon News - Critter spotters are feline good about this one.

Biologists were flabbergasted when an elusive animal thought to be extinct was spotted in Thailand — a staggering 30 years after it was last spotted, according to conservation officials.

The flat-headed cat is among the world’s rarest and most threatened felines — with only 2,500 adult individuals living in their native homeland of Southeast Asia, Smithsonian reported.

The clawed creature — named for its elongated forehead and flat skulls — was even labeled “possibly extinct” within Thailand, where the last sighting occurred in 1995.

That was until, between 2024 and 2025, camera traps picked up the critters staggering 29 times during a conservation survey in southern Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary, Science Alert reported.

In addition, footage showed included a female flat-headed cat with her cub, which was a positive sign for an animal that typically only produces one baby at a time.

The campaign was a joint effort by Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the conservation nonprofit Panthera, both of which are helping carry out the largest-ever survey of the species, Mongabay reported.

Conservationists were awestruck over the discovery. “Rediscovering flat-headed cats in southern Thailand is an extraordinary moment for conservation,” Wai Ming Wong, Panthera’s small cat conservation science director, told the outlet.

NYP