The Borneo Bay Cat

Scientific Name: Catopuma badia
IUCN Status: Endangered
Weight: 4-9 pounds

Description:

The Borneo Bay Cat is about the size of a large, long-bodied domestic cat with a conspicuous long tail. It resembles a small slender Asiatic Golden Cat with a proportionally smaller, round head and stubby, rounded ears which are set rather low on the side of the head. It comes in two forms, a rich rusty-red to mahogany-red, and a grey form with variable red undertones especially along the transition from the body colour to the paler underparts. These cats are unmarked except for stripes on the forehead and cheeks, and faint spotting along the transition between the upper body colour and underparts. The back of the ear is black without a white spot. The bright white underside of the tail with a dark dorsal tip is distinctive in the field.

Prey:

The Borneo Bay Cat is one of the least-studied cats and its ecology is very poorly known. Small vertebrates presumably comprise most of the diet. It is also assumed that diurnal terrestrial birds may also be an important prey.

Biology:

There is no information on reproduction including from captivity; there are no captive Bay Cats at the time of writing and the species has never bred in captivity.