It was first described in 1862 on the basis of a traded skin with an incomplete tail. Its fur colour is pale to tawny, and it has large cloud-like markings on the shoulders and flanks with a few spots within the clouds. In his first description of four Formosan clouded leopard skins, Swinhoe noted the shortness of its tail, which is about one-half the length of clouded leopard specimens from the Himalayas. Prior to its extirpation, it was Taiwan's second-largest carnivore, after the Formosan black bear