African Golden Cat World's Most Mysterious, And With African Deforestation, Possibly Most Threatened

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Small and powerful, the golden cat primarily hunts rodents on the forest floor. Photo credit: David Mills/ Panthera

“Since 2010, we have conducted seven camera surveys and accumulated nearly 300 independent golden cat captures in over 18,000 trap days,” David Mills told mongabay.com.

One of the first thing scientists learned is that the golden cat is far more vulnerable to extinction than anyone knew.

An update by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) just this year raised the stakes for the African golden cat from Near Threatened to Vulnerable. The rainforest-loving species has been hard hit by deforestation, with an estimated 30 percent loss in numbers over the past 15 years (that’s three golden cat generations). “Additionally, the exacerbation of these threats due to population growth, projected mining activities and forest clearance for oil palm plantations will likely cause further reduction,” by at least a further 30 percent in the next 15 years, reports the IUCN. Indeed, researchers say the cat disappears from forests with a heavy human presence.

Unravelling an enigma

Previous studies have suggested around 10,000 golden cats are left in the wild, but nobody is sure: it’s not a figure scientists Bahaa-el-din and Mills verified with their research. The species roams the equatorial forests of Africa over two separate regions ­– one stretching across Central Africa from Uganda west to Gabon, and the other in West Africa stretching roughly from Ghana west to Guinea. Its main stronghold is in the forests of the Congo Basin.

EDIT

http://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/feline-unseen-the-african-golden-cat/

[Little Tich]

1. I've read about these elusive cats before.

I really hope we find out more about them before they get extinct, and that we can help them from going extinct.