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Bornean Bay Cat - Catopuma badia
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:17 PM (3,938 Views)
Taipan
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Bornean Bay Cat - Catopuma badia

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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Catopuma
Species: Catopuma badia


The Bay Cat (Catopuma badia), also known as Bornean Cat, Bornean Red Cat, Bornean Marbled Cat, Borneo-katze, Chat Bai, Gato Rojo de Borneo, Kucing Kalimantan, Kucing Merahor or Bornean Bay Cat, is a small feline endemic to the island of Borneo. The Bay Cat and the Asian Golden Cat (Catopuma temminckii) are the only members of the genus Catopuma.
There is not much known about the Bay Cat due to its rarity. Until 1998, live specimens of this animal had not even been caught on camera. Nearly everything that is known about this cat is based on about twelve specimens, the first of which was collected by Alfred Russel Wallace in 1855 in Sarawak. Later specimens were collected in 1874, 1992, and 1998, along with a few skins obtained from trappers.

Range and Habitat

The Bornean bay cat only occurs on the small island of Borneo in the Indonesian Islands. They inhabit limestone rock that borders forests and in the jungles.

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Physical Appearance
They look like a smaller version of the Asian golden cat. They come in two color types: the more common reddish brown type, and a grey type. They have paler underparts, which have darker spots on them. Pale lines mark their forehead and cheeks. The ears are blackish brown in color. The tail is brown with a white underside and tip, with a black spot on the top of the tip. Its teeth are unlike any other cat: with its first upper premolar being smaller and only having one root in the gum, as opposed to the two in other cats.

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Diet
This wild cat hunts at night for birds, rodents, and monkeys. In addition to hunting, the Bay Cat is also is a nocturnal scavenger, and will often eat carrion when available.

Reproduction and Social Behavior
This is one of the least studied species of the cat family. There is nothing documented on this cat's social and reproductive behavior, or its numbers in the wild. November 1992 was the first time a live Bornean bay cat has been captured, and there had been no prior sightings in the wild since 1928. The at was a female, and it was the first whole animal of only 7 specimens known.

Threats
This cat suffers from deforestation. There is insufficient information on the status of their population in the wild.


Subspecies
There are no known subspecies of this cat.

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Taipan
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dinomike
 
Bay Cat - Catopuma badia

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Evolution
Recent analyses indicate that the Bay Cat diverged from a common ancestor with the Asian Golden Cat an estimated 4.9-5.3 million years ago, well before the geological separation of Borneo from other islands on the Sunda Shelf some 10,000-15,000 years ago.


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 (3,000 ft), one unconfirmed sighting being at 1,800 metres (5,900 ft); 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.

Conservation status
Due to significant habitat loss in Borneo, the Bay Cat has been only recently reclassified as endangered by the IUCN in 2005, after being classified "data deficient" only ten years before. Now that the cat is fully protected over most of its range, CITES has recently placed the Bornean Bay Cat on Appendix II, due to lack of data. Although on paper Borneo has 25 wildlife reserves, only three are actually in existence, with the others only proposed. All of these reserves 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. There are no Bay Cats officially in captivity.

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Spotted: Rare Cat Species Captured on Camera in Borneo

By Douglas Main, Staff Writer | November 04, 2013 05:00pm ET

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The bay cat, or Bornean marble cat, has only been recorded on video a handful of times before and was only first photographed in 2003.

Several rare and endangered bay cats were spotted on camera in a heavily logged section of rainforest in Borneo, where scientists didn't expect to find them, a group of researchers announced today (Nov. 4).

The bay cat, or Bornean marbled cat, has only been recorded on video a handful of times before and was only first photographed in 2003, according to a release from the Zoological Society of London and Imperial College London, whose scientists set up the cameras.

In the same area where the bay cats were found, in the northern Borneo, cameras also captured four other cat species, making it one of only four spots where all of these species have been recorded. The four other cat species were the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) and marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata). Three out of four of these species are considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"We were completely surprised to see so many bay cats at these sites in Borneo where natural forests have been so heavily logged for the timber trade," said Robert Ewers, an Imperial College London researcher, in the statement.

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Scientists estimate there are fewer than 2,500 adult bay cats remaining in the wild.Pin It Scientists estimate there are fewer than 2,500 adult bay cats remaining in the wild.

Very little is known about Borneo bay cats because they are shy and have low population densities, according to the IUCN. However, scientists estimate there are fewer than 2,500 adults remaining in the wild, and that their population will decline by 20 percent in the next 12 years due to deforestation in Borneo, the IUCN reported.

Unlike other camera traps that are often set up at strategic locations, these were placed at random locations, which apparently helped to spot the endangered cats.

"We discovered that randomly placed cameras have a big influence on the species recorded," said Oliver Wearn, a researcher at the Zoological Society of London. "This is something I was taught in school — I remember doing a project on which plant species were most abundant on our playing field, and being taught to fling quadrats [a geometric tool used to define a study area] over my shoulder in a random direction before seeing what plants lay within it, rather than placing it somewhere that looked like a good place to put it — the same principle applies here."

http://www.livescience.com/40933-rare-bay-cat-on-camera.html
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Rare Borneo Bay Cat Captured in Stunning Photo

By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer | January 22, 2014 12:09pm ET

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An elusive bay cat was recently caught on camera in Borneo

An extremely elusive creature called a bay cat has been photographed in stunning detail in its native Borneo in Southeast Asia.

The new image, which was captured by a photographer working with the wildcat conservation organization Panthera, is one of the first high-resolution images taken of the enigmatic species. Previously, grainy camera-trap images were the main evidence of the cat's existence.

The bay cat, or Pardofelis badia, is a mysterious little wildcat that lives only on the island of Borneo, which includes the countries of Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. The diminutive hunters are smaller than the average house cat and have either ruddy chestnut or grayish coats. Their nocturnal nature and secretive demeanors, combined with a low population density, make sightings of the cats incredibly rare. Almost nothing is known about what they eat or how they reproduce.

Logging has threatened some of these cats' tropical forest habitats, and the creature is now listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the past, the elusive cats were only documented in poor-resolution camera-trap images first captured in 1998. In November 2013, another research team captured several camera-trap images of the cats, along with Sunda clouded leopards and marbled cats.

To find out more about the species, photographer Sebastian Kennerknecht and Andrew Hearn, a researcher at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, went out into the rainforests of Borneo on the hunt for the bay cat. The team took two trips but managed to get just one photo of the cat.

"During the first trip, we were able to get pictures of a marbled cat and Sunda clouded leopards, but the bay cat proved elusive," Kennerknecht said in an email. "Only on the second trip did we get this single picture. It is of a grey phased male that Andrew has gotten on camera before."

To find the cat, the team chose spots to place customized digital SLR camera traps where Hearn had sighted bay cats before, Kennerknecht said. The cameras shoot when an animal crosses an infrared sensor.

The image was captured in the unlogged lowland rainforests of Malaysian Borneo.

http://www.livescience.com/42760-bay-cat-spotted-in-borneo.html
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New population of rare cat species discovered
Researchers working in Borneo have found a new population of a secretive wild cat.


28th April 2017 Megan Shersby Share

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Scientists carrying out wildlife surveys in the Rungan Landscape in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, have captured footage of a bay cat.

This camera trap video was recorded 64 km south-east of the species' known distribution range.

Watch the footage of the bay cat:


Video footage of the first bay cat seen in the area © Borneo Nature Foundation

“Wild cats can be some of the most difficult species to study in the wild,” said Dr Susan Cheyne, lead author and co-director of Borneo Nature Foundation.

“They are secretive, solitary and highly camouflaged. But, our knowledge and understanding of the secretive wild cats of Borneo is improving thanks to technology, like camera traps.”

Researchers from Borneo Nature Foundation have been working in collaboration with scientists from Muhammadiyah Universitas Palangka Raya (Indonesia) and the University of Exeter (UK) to carry out wildlife surveys, including the use of 52 camera traps in the forest.

The scientists have not released the exact location of the species, as the forest is not currently protected.

The bay cat is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and is threatened with habitat loss and hunting across Borneo.

“The bay cat is a protected species in Indonesia,” said Siti Maimunah, head of forestry at the Universitas Muhammadiyah and publication co-author. “Therefore if we are going to protect this species, we also need to protect its forest home.

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/new-population-rare-cat-species-discovered
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