This is the heartbreaking moment a leopard cat and her kitten were found dead - curled up next to each other on the roadside. <br /><br />The endangered animals were found by residents in Miaoli County, Taiwan, last Friday morning (August 23).<br /><br />The mother is believed to have been struck by a car as she carried the baby in her mouth. The impact killed both of them.<br /><br />The two deaths add the growing number of leopard cats - an endangered species in Taiwan - that have been killed in the region.<br /><br />An adult leopard cat was found dead on a nearby motorway the night before, while a few days before a young leopard cat was seen dead on the roadside of Provincial Highway 61.<br /><br />The police have started an investigation to find the drivers of the cars believed to have hit the felines.<br /><br />Between November 2011 and June 20, 2019, there were 77 reported incidents of leopard cats killed on Taiwan’s roads. Of those deaths, 56 occurred in Miaoli County.<br /><br />Taiwan's Forestry Bureau lists the leopard cat as a class-one endangered animal, with fewer than 1,000 estimated remaining island-wide.<br /><br />The leopard cat, or Prionailurus bengalensis, is a small wild cat about the size of a domestic cat, but more slender.
