The Asian golden cat inhabits numerous nations across South and Southeast Asia.(Image credit: imageBROKER.com GmbH & Co. KG via Alamy)QUICK FACTS
Name: Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii)
Where it resides: China, Nepal, Southeast Asia and northeastern India
What it consumes: Fowl, reptiles, diminutive mammals such as rodents, and sizable mammals like juvenile deer
The Asian golden cat, also referred to as the Asiatic golden cat or Temminck’s feline, constitutes a wildcat native to some of the most profuse forests of Asia. It exhibits a diverse spectrum of coat variations, denudes birds prior to consumption, and — in spite of a weight not exceeding 35 lbs (16 kg), roughly twice or thrice the size of a house cat — demonstrates sufficient mettle to slay quarry like buffalo young, modest muntjacs, and fledgling deer.
Although it favors terrestrial hunting, the Asian golden cat can also ascend trees. It despatches larger animals with a robust bite to the nape, marauding through sub-tropical and tropical woodlands at variable times throughout the day. While academics previously inferred that Asian golden cats were nocturnal, more current indications hint that these felines display erratic activity designs which could peak during twilight.
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According to a 2016 biodiversity investigation in Bhutan, the species can endure up to 20 years and exist at altitudes from sea level up to 14,050 feet (4,282 meters). This survey, alongside others that demonstrate Asian golden cats populating extremely elevated regions, intimate that elevated locales may offer salient habitat for the species.
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Asian golden cats have equally been documented in open spaces featuring rocky expanses, and they are even regionally dubbed “rock cats” in sections of China, as cited by the ISEC. Their territories possess a scope roughly 20% greater than those of the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), despite the two species sharing comparable conduct and overlapping distribution.
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However, their predilection for forest environs renders Asian golden cats exceedingly susceptible to deforestation, which has engendered considerable habitat depletion for the species. Southeast Asian forests sustain some of the most precipitous rates of deforestation globally due to the augmentation of crops such as palm oil, coffee, and rubber, according to the ISEC.
Asian golden cats likewise confront threats from illicit hunting pursued for their hides and bones, employed in conventional medicine, and for their flesh, deemed a culinary treasure in certain regions, as revealed by the ISEC. Whenever Asian golden cats encounter livestock like sheep and goats, these predators occasionally slay the livestock of farmers, spurring retaliatory killings, the society elucidates.
TOPICSamazing animals
Sascha PareSocial Links NavigationStaff writer
Sascha is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.
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