Natural History

Asian golden cat

The Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) also known as Temminck's cat or the Asiatic golden cat, is a medium-sized wild cat native to the northeastern Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and southern China. The Asian golden cat's scientific name honours Coenraad Jacob Temminck. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2025, and is threatened by poaching and habitat destruction, since Southeast Asian forests are undergoing the world's fastest regional deforestation as well as poaching for the illegal wildlife trade, where its pelt and bones are often sold as substitutes for tiger parts in traditional medicine. It is part of the bay cat lineage. It is most closely related to the endemic Bornean bay cat, with which it shares the genus Catopuma. The two species diverged from a common ancestor several million years ago and, along with the marbled cat, form a distinct evolutionary branch of felids. The Asian golden cat is larger than a domestic cat. It has a head-to-body length of 66–105 cm (26–41 in), with a 40–57 cm (16–22 in) long tail, and is 56 cm (22 in) tall at the shoulder. Its weight ranges from 9 to 16 kg (20 to 35 lb), with males generally being larger than females. It is highly polymorphic, occurring in reddish, golden, cinnamon, gray, brown, ocelot and melanistic morphs. The species is highly adaptable to a variety of forested environments such as tropical and subtropical moist evergreen forests, mixed deciduous forests, and occasionally more open habitats like bamboo thickets and shrublands. Primarily a solitary and terrestrial animal, the Asian golden cat is a climber capable of hunting in trees when necessary. It is an opportunistic carnivore with a hunting pattern that can be diurnal, crepuscular, or nocturnal depending on human disturbance and prey availability. Its diet consists largely of small ungulates such as muntjacs and chevrotains, alongside rodents, reptiles, birds, and occasionally domestic livestock.

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See also

• ▸Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
• ▸Erbil
• ▸Caniformia

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