borneo bay cat

endangered cats

  • HB Length: Appr. 53 cm (21″)
  • Tail Length: Appr. 39 cm (15″)
  • Height: Unknown
  • Weight: 3-4 kg (6-9 lbs)
  • Pop. Trend: Decreasing

The Borneo Bay Cat Catopuma badia is the mystery member of the cat family. Next to nothing is known about their ecology or distribution.

Previously thought to be a small island form of the Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii, genetic testing has revealed the Bay Cat is a unique species, and therefore a highly endangered one.

About the size of a large house cat, Bay Cats have uniform, dark, chestnut red fur faintly speckled with black markings, and spots on the lighter golden brown underside and limbs. A second colour phase of dark, bluish slate-grey has also been recorded, as have black or melanistic specimens. The short, rounded head is dark greyish brown with two dark stripes originating from the corner of each eye, and the back of the head has a dark ‘M’ shaped marking. The backs of the short rounded ears are dark greyish. The underside of the chin is white and there are two faint brown stripes on the cheeks. Their long, tapering tail has a yellowish streak down its length on the underside, becoming pure white at the tip, which is marked with a small black spot.

Distribution

borneo bay cat range map
Click for larger image

The Bay Cat is found only on the island of Borneo, and appears to be widely distributed on the island. An extensive, contiguous forested area of interior Borneo is thought to be suitable habitat for these cats.

Both lowland and upland forests are thought to be important habitats for Bay Cats. Lower montane and swamp forests are considered poor habitat but may function as wildlife corridors. All other non-forested habitat, oil palm plantations and burnt forest areas are considered unsuitable.

Ecology

During their study of the five felids on Borneo, researchers from the Bornean Clouded Leopard Program obtained camera trap photos of the Bay Cat, which were obtained at midday, early morning and at night.

Scientists from this project observed two Bay Cats at night on the roadside in an area that had been selectively logged ten years previously. Road edges contain dense small trees and high numbers of rodents, making them ideal hunting areas.

While the increasing use of camera traps on Borneo is slowly yielding more detection of the Bay Cat, a number of surveys in areas predicted to be high suitability failed to detect it.  A detailed field study on the Bay Cat is urgently required.

In 1992, an adult female Bay Cat was brought into the Sarawak Museum, alive but at the point of death, dying soon after. The cat had apparently been caught by native trappers and held in captivity for some months. The appearance of this specimen offered the first opportunity to look at a whole animal.

In 1998, BBC Wildlife Magazine published the first photo photograph of a live Borneo Bay Cat. This cat was weighed, measured, photographed, given a physical examination, dewormed and released back into the forest.

Conservation

Outside of protected areas, habitat loss due to commercial logging and palm oil plantations is the main threat to the Bay Cat. A collaborative effort between an Indonesian timber company and the Nature Conservancy is providing sustainable development, which includes monitoring the impact of tree removal (5 trees per hectare) on wildlife.

The Borneo Bay Cat is forest-dependent, and forest cover on the island of Borneo, if current deforestation rates continue, is projected to decline from 50% to less than one-third by 2020. Some forest areas are  currently declining by 5% per year.

Wildlife traders are aware of the cat’s rarity, and they have been captured illegally from the wild for the skin and pet markets. Poaching of the cats’ prey species is a growing problem. There is legal protection of the Borneo Bay cat within Borneo, but enforcement to actually stop trade is minimal

Compare this cat to the Asiatic golden cat.

Range map IUCN Red List (2008)

Updated 2016

20 Responses

  1. Pat Bumstead

    No one can save this cat until people know what it needs to survive in the wild. They have never been studied anywhere. Saving habitat through a commercial scheme will do nothing for the bay cat if there is no prey for them in that habitat, and a healthy population to promote.

  2. Heather

    This is absolutely amazing- Im a second year BSc zoology student in the UK, I am looking to come up with conservation efforts for this species (only hypothetical) and wondered if you could do anything what would you do? I think teaming up with WLT in their Buy an Acre scheme would be beneficial to get their habitat thriving again |(although it may take many years)- is there anything non-habitat related to save this species?

  3. Pat Bumstead

    It is officially Catopuma badia as shown on this page from the Wild Conservation Union Cat Specialist Group. Taxonomy on wild cats changes frequently though and it may be something different next time the experts take a look at it.

  4. Benito Rondón

    I congratulate you for your hard work in researching and supporting these little known wild cats. I wanted to ask you. Its scientific name is Pardofelis badia or Catopuma badia ?. I say this because, according to the IUCN, it appears as Catopuma and it seems to continue to be its official name. And my second question is: What would the entity be? My doubts are due to the fact that I read in a source that in 2006 it was included in the Pardofelis gebero along with the Asian golden cat and the marbled cat .. Is there an official site where I can confirm it? Thank you very much in advance for your response.

  5. Pat Bumstead

    Eye shine comes from the nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, which is found in all cat species. The Borneo Bay cat is no exception so no, it is not true.

  6. Sebastian moaveni

    I heard something about the Borneo Bay cat having no eye shine, is this true

  7. Jim Heavey

    About 8 yrs ago I visited a zoo 45mins by car from kotakina balu saw a gold cat about size and shape close to a greyhound It would not stop moving and I did not get a photo pics here look closer than other pics I’ve seen yevaeh33 @gmail .com

  8. Pat Bumstead

    Please email us at smallwildcats @ gmail.com and we’ll be happy to give you more information!

  9. Ahmad Ampeng

    I am doing research with all the five cats in Sarawak Borneo since 2004. I interested and would like to join the International Society For Endangered Cats, (ISEC) Kanada. Can anyone tell me how to join.

  10. Pat Bumstead

    Catopuma is the current genus applied to the bay cat. In years previous they were classed as Pardofelis, but taxonomy is an ever changing science.

  11. Nel Yates

    I’m a senior citizen studying world wildlife and am confused re:the two genus names. Which will be accepted,catopuma or pardofelis?

  12. Jenni

    I too watched the PBS program and was quite blown away by this little known cat species. It was truly amazing to know how much we don’t know about the Bay cat. Of course, after reading a bit more about this rare and beautiful animal, bringing attention to it inevitably inspires bad people to poach them. This cat is incredible and I pray to God we continue to learn more and protect yet another endangered animal on our planet. One can only hope🙏

  13. Max Wells

    I worked for over a decade at a local wildlife care center, and managed to solve a lot of care situations there. Watch and deduce. I watched PBS Nature Super Cats, and the first thing I noticed about the Borneo Bay Cat is it’s physical proportions. Like a cheetah, long back, and long tail, thick strong thighs longer than the lower rear leg, long legs. It looks built for speed and athletic ability like a cheetah. It looks built for bursts of speed, and not like the climbing arboreal cats usually seen in jungle environments. Even the casual gait, on the limited videos, has the steady casualness similar to a cheetah. The cat’s physical presentation may be a clue to it’s hunting technique. Some day I hope you learn more.
    I am leaving a ghost writer name.

  14. Pat Bumstead

    The Bay Cat is one of the rarest cats in the world. Everything known about them is on our factsheet. There are no other websites, and no population estimates.

  15. angelica wiltson

    I need to have info on the bay cat, but I need more than you can give me, what websites do you recommend?

  16. Pat Bumstead

    It’s not a silly question at all, as Bay Cats do indeed look like fossas and we’ve had this question before. They are no relation though, and not even in the same carnivore family. Bay Cats are part of the Felidae family and found only on Borneo. Fossas are members of the Eupleridae family and closely related to the mongoose family. Fossas are only found on the island of Madagascar.

  17. James mcintyre

    I have a question which may seem silly but I would appreciate your opinion I am at present sitting watching a programme on the bbc in England on big cats and have just been introduced to the Borneo bay cat which is without doubt an oddly proportioned animal but I recognised that particular shape and was wondering could they be related in some way to the fossa in Madagascar almost like the cat version of a missing link I realise that I am probably way off the mark but it is already playing on my mind and I would be grateful if you could give me your opinion

    Yours in anticipation
    James McIntyre

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