Bay Cat

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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008)
Bay Cat[1]

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Pardofelis
Species: P. badia
Binomial name
Pardofelis badia

The Bay Cat (Pardofelis badia, other genus names in use are Felis, Profelis, Catopuma or Badiofelis) is also known as Bornean Cat, Bornean Red Cat or Bornean Bay Cat, since it is endemic to the island of Borneo.

There is not much known about the Bay Cat due to its rarity. Until 1998, live specimens of this species had not even been caught on camera.

Contents

Appearance

The Bay Cat's fur is usually reddish brown, but there is also a grey colour variant, but it is usually paler on the underparts. The ears are short and rounded, set well down on the sides of the head. The body is faintly speckled with black markings, and spots on the lighter golden brown underside and limbs. The short, rounded head is dark greyish brown with two dark stripes originating from the corner of each eye, and the back of the head has a dark ‘M’ shaped marking. The backs of the ears are dark greyish. The underside of the chin is white and there are two faint brown stripes on the cheeks. Their long, tapering tail has a yellowish streak down its length on the underside, becoming pure white at the tip, which is marked with a small black spot. Body proportions and the extremely long tail give it the look of the new world jaguarundi Herpailurus yaguarondi. It has always been questioned whether the bay cat is a unique species or merely a smaller island form of the Asian golden cat. With blood samples taken from the 1992 specimen, genetic testing has confirmed that they are indeed a unique species, and therefore a highly endangered one. No subspecies have been described. The Bay Cat has a length of 55 cm (22 in), plus a 35 cm (14 in) tail. The weight is only about 2.3 to 4.5 kg (5 to 10 lbs). The Bay Cat has 1-3 kittens born after 70-75 day gestation period, being sexually mature at 18 to 24 months.

Diet

This wild cat hunts at night for birds and rodents, and for monkeys, despite these the bay cat will not just hunt for food and will often eat, when avaliable, carrion and is a nocturnal scavenger.

Habitat

As its English name suggests, the Bornean red cat is confined to the island of Borneo. Found in the dense tropical forests up to an altitude of 900 metres, one unconfirmed sighting being at 1,800m; it has been observed in rocky limestone outcrops and recently in logged dipterocarp forest. At least three specimens were found near rivers, but this is probably due to collector convenience rather than evidence of habitat preference. The latest individual to be caught was on the Sarawak, Indonesian border but other records are widely distributed in the northern half of the island. It has been found in Kalimantan (Borneo), Sabah and Sarawak[3].

Conservation Status

Due to significant habitat loss in Borneo, the bay cat has been only recently reclassified as endangered in 2005 after being classified data deficient only ten years before by the IUCN, fully protected over most of their range, CITES has recently placed the Bornean bay cat on Appendix II, due to lack of data. Although Borneo has 25 wildlife reserves on paper, only three are actually in existence, with the others only proposed, all of them have been encroached upon by human settlement and logging. Unfortunately local trappers and animal dealers are also well aware that foreign zoos and breeding facilities will pay US $10,000 or more for a live animal. Nearly everything that is known about this cat is based on a few specimens collected in 1874, 1992 and in 1998, plus a few skins collected. There are none officially in captivity.

References

  1. ^ Wozencraft, W. C. (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 542. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ^ Hearn A, Sanderson J, Ross J, Wilting A. & Sunarto S. (2008). Catopuma badia. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2008. Retrieved on 2008-10-30. Database entry includes justification for why this species is endangered
  3. ^ J.Mohd-Azlan and J.Sanderson, Geographic distribution and conservation status of the bay cat Catopuma badia, a Bornean endemic, Oryx Vol 41 No 3 July 2007
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