asiatic golden cat

endangered cats

  • HB Length: 66-105 cm (26-41″)
  • Tail Length: 42-57 cm (16-22″)
  • Height: Appr. 40 cm (16″)
  • Weight: 8.5-15 kg (19-33 lbs)
  • Pop. Trend: Decreasing

The Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temmincki is a feline of many costumes. Sturdily built with fairly long legs, they are medium sized, with fox-red to gold-brown, black, brown or grey fur. Melanistic examples are not uncommon.

The moderate length, dense coat is generally unmarked, but those cats in the more northerly regions often exhibit a variety of spots and stripes that closely resemble the markings of the Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis.

The most conspicuous features of this cat are the white lines bordered with black running across the cheeks, and from the inner corners of the eyes up to the crown. As with most cats, the underside and inner legs are white, and there is a white patch on the underside of the last part of the long tail, which is roughly 1/2 to 1/3 of the total body length. The backs of the short, rounded ears are black, with a whitish central area, and the eyes are usually greyish green or amber.

Distribution

asiatic golden cat range map
Click for larger image

The Golden Cat is a nocturnal forest dweller, preferring sub-tropical and tropical evergreen forests, but they occasionally frequent more open areas with rocky tracts. In parts of China they are known as the ‘rock cat’. They are found from Nepal and northeast India through Southeast Asia, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra, but not on the island of Borneo.

In a protected area in Sumatra, all records were from lowland forest, with none from the montane forest where Clouded Leopards Neofelis nebulosa and Marbled Cats Pardofelais marmorata are found. Hill forests of India also contain Clouded Leopards and Marbled Cats, but no Asiatic Golden Cats.

Camera trap photos of both the spotted form and the more common reddish coat have been taken at 3,730 metres in Bhutan dwarf shrubs and grassland, setting a record for high altitude sightings.In 2009, camera trap photos in Nepal obtained the first-ever picture of a melanistic Golden Cat in the wild.

During a field study in Thailand, one adult female had a home range of 32.6 km2,, which was overlapped 78% by a male’s range of 47.7 km2 . Asiatic Golden Cat ranges were 20% larger than those of the Clouded Leopard, although the two cats were similar in activity and distance travelled.

Ecology

The Asiatic Golden Cat is one of the least studied cats in tropical Asia, and little is known of their ecology. Activity levels of two radio collared cats in Thailand were found to be diurnal and crepuscular, although some camera trap photos were obtained at night.

The Asiatic species was once thought to be closely related to the African Golden Cat Caracal aurata although the two are separated by more than 6,400 kilometres. Recent genetic analysis however, has determined they are not closely related, in spite of the many physical similarities.

Although Asiatic Golden Cats can climb well, they spend most of their time on the ground, carrying their long tail curled up at the tip. They are reported by tribesmen in Thailand to have their young in the hollow of a tree.

Reproduction

After a gestation of 75 – 80 days, one to three kittens are born, weighing approximately 250 grams. Their eyes open at around nine days, and they are weaned at six months. Kittens have longer, thicker coats than the adults, but show no pattern. They are slightly darker than the adults. This attractive Asian carnivore has in the past been fairly common in European zoos, although their reproductive rate was not particularly good. Worldwide, there are currently less than a dozen in zoos. There is a high incidence of females being killed by their mates, even in well established pairs. Maximum longevity has been reported at 20 years.

Conservation

Although they are reported to be decreasing in India and Indonesia, no factual information is known of their overall status in the wild.

Major threats include hunting for their pelt and bones. Their meat is considered a delicacy and the whole animal is often roasted on a spit. They are known to prey on poultry, sheep and goats, and it is for this reason that the cats are actively hunted by the villagers.

Local tribal people in Bangladesh traditionally hunt and trap Asiatic Golden Cats to eat. With the extreme rarity of the Tiger Panthera tigris and the Leopard Panthera pardus in the area, people now look to the lesser cats as sources of meat. Their meat is believed to have special ingredients to increase strength and vigour, as carnivores are strong hunters of other animals.

Legends

Asiatic Golden Cats have long been known in Myanmar and Thailand as ‘fire cats’. Legend says that carrying one hair will give the bearer protection from Tigers, or burning the pelt will drive Tigers away from the village. Their bones are sometimes ground into a powder to be given to children for fevers.

See also the African Golden Cat page.

Range map IUCN Red List (2008)

Updated 2014

16 Responses

  1. Rolf Westerberg

    Golden cat one of my fauvorite.It’s stunning beautiful.So important to inform goverment and lokal village people to protect this enigmatic cat

  2. Pat Bumstead

    The only way to protect them all is to save their habitat. This requires cooperation from governmental authorities, and researchers to study the cats in their native habitat to learn what they need. There are now many studies in many countries on the fishing cat, but I am not aware of any studies on the Asian golden cat.

  3. Rolf Westerberg

    I have an great intererest in all cat species,And I keen to know about their status in the wild and how we can protect them espcially asian Golden cat and fishing cat

  4. Pat Bumstead

    The Asiatic Golden cat can have stripes or spots and some have no markings at all. They never have a mane, so I’m not sure what animal you are describing.

  5. Lois

    Villagers said the animal they call dog lion which has some mane, spots in the shoulders. In the body some have strip like tiger but some do not have strips. It weight 8.5 kilo. though it may be asiatic golden cat.

  6. Pat Bumstead

    Research on most of the small wild cats is felt necessary. It’s generally a question of the difficulty in obtaining funding for field research studies. Plus, the large range of these cats makes it very hard to study the species as a whole.

  7. Jangchuk Gyeltshen

    We have wide distribution of Asiatic Golden Cats. Unfortunately, no study has been done to assess threats to this survival of these cats in the wild even though there seems no prevalence of illegal poaching or hunting. Research on these cats is felt necessary.

  8. Pat Bumstead

    No one knows how many Asian Golden Cats there are. They live in thick jungle in a large number of countries, and it would be impossible to count them.

  9. Margaret Gould

    The bush meat trade is a large contributor to the demise of wild life world wild, and until this problem is dealt with, no amount of research is going to save any of the endangered species. What is needed, is funding to tackle this problem by, firstly re-educating local populations about the myths of any benefits from bush meat, and secondly, put pressure on Governments to apply harsh rules and penalties in their countries.

  10. MR. LOVECATS

    this website was awesomely helpful! i used it for my information writing essay. so much helpful info that i was looking for on like, 20 websites, all in 1 page!

  11. Pat Bumstead

    To my knowledge, there are very few Asian Golden Cats in captivity. One zoo in Australia has had success breeding these cats but as our focus is on field research, we do not have very much information on captive populations.

  12. Marco Abreu

    Maybe breeders in Zoos worlwide could aplly same breeding procedures as the ones used to the Neofelis Nebulosa? They started introducing partners at a young age to establish couples and the agressiveness towards females decresead substantially. They seem to somewhat bond, unlike other felids.
    Has this been tried with the asian golden cat yet?

  13. anas

    I saw the name in my biology text under endangered species… I am curious about different animals whether they are endangered or extinct. I must say you have the webpage full of information.

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