Borneo golden cat
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Borneo golden cat ( Catopuma badia ) |
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| Catopuma badia | ||||||||||||
| ( Gray , 1874) |
The Borneo golden cat ( Catopuma badia , syn .: Pardofelis badia ) is a wildcat endemic to Borneo and is one of the rarest and least known cat species. Since 2002 she is on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable ( endangered out), because the population is estimated at fewer than 2,500 adult animals and are likely to further decimated due to the progressive destruction of their habitat.
It is closely related to the Asiatic golden cat and the marble cat .
features
Borneo golden cats are similar to the Asian golden cat, but are smaller. They reach a head and trunk length of 53-70 centimeters, a tail length of 32-39 centimeters and a weight of 3-5 kilograms. There are two color morphs , one more common reddish-brown and one gray. The underside is lighter and has dark spots. The head is characterized by the dark, rounded ears and light stripes on the cheek. They differ from all other cats in the structure of the teeth in that the first upper premolar is smaller and more rounded and has only one root.
distribution and habitat
Borneo golden cats are endemic to Borneo and are mainly found in the interior of the island, both in swamp forest, mixed forest in lower elevations and in higher forests up to at least 500 m altitude. In the mid-1990s there were reliable sightings from the upper reaches of the Kapuas River in western Kalimantan and in Gunung Palung National Park. According to an unconfirmed report, a golden cat was spotted at 1,800 meters on the Kinabalu .
They live in dense tropical rainforest , but have also been spotted in rocky outcrops of limestone and in Schlag , some close to the coast . Three individuals were found near the river. Between 2003 and 2005, 15 solitary Borneo golden cats were sighted in Kalimantan, Sabah and Sarawak , but none in Brunei . Since almost all historical and recent evidence comes from the vicinity of rivers or mangroves , it can be assumed that golden cats mainly stay in such habitats.
Way of life
Borneo golden cats are very rare. This is supported by the fact that people in rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak were able to identify clouded leopards , bengal cats , flat-headed cats and marble cats in pictures, but did not recognize the Borneo golden cat. Nothing is known about the diet as no field studies have been carried out to date.
Camera traps set up in several nature reserves in Sarawak between March 2003 and April 2005 only produced a single image of a Borneo golden cat in 5,034 days.
Historical evidence
For a long time, knowledge about this species of cats was based only on body parts of six specimens that were killed in mangroves between 1855 and 1928.
Alfred Russel Wallace sent the skin and skeleton of a golden cat to the British Museum in London in 1856 . These body parts were poorly preserved and were initially mistaken for a young Asian golden cat. John Edward Gray examined the skull and came to the conclusion that the specimen was a new, previously undisclosed species. However, he wanted to wait with the first scientific description until a better preserved coat is available. It was not until 1874 that he published a description of the poorly preserved fur and the incomplete skull.
The body parts of two adult Bornean golden cats, collected by Alfred Hart Everett in 1888 and Charles Hose in 1894, were also given to the British Museum. In 1900, Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis sent a hide to the imperial museum of the city of Leiden . An acquired in 1914 Fell received the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution . The Borneo golden cat, killed near Kuching in Sarawak in 1928, is in the Sarawak Museum. It wasn't until 1989 that a Bornean golden cat was discovered again in Sarawak, the remains of which are stored in the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History .
In 1992, trappers caught a female Bornean golden cat - the first to be examined alive. The obviously sick cat weighed only 1.95 kilograms and died soon after. Blood and tissue samples were taken at the Sarawak Museum for genetic analysis . The analyzes showed that the Borneo golden cat is closely related to the Asian golden cat. The two species developed from a common ancestor and separated into separate forms about 4.9 to 5.3 million years ago.
threat
Borneo golden cats are dependent on forests and are increasingly threatened by deforestation and the associated loss of habitat.
The degree of deforestation on Borneo is among the highest in the world. In the mid-1980s, almost three quarters of the island was still covered with forest. By 2005 the forest population had shrunk to 52%. Primeval forest and land have given way to agricultural land and settlements, and illegal wildlife trade is widespread.
natural reserve
Catopuma badia is listed in Appendix II of the Washington Convention on Endangered Species and is under nature protection in Indonesia and Malaysia .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c A. Hearn, J. Sanderson, J. Ross, A. Wilting, S. Sunarto: Pardofelis badia. (2008). In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2.
- ↑ WE Johnson, E. Eizirik, J. Pecon-Slattery, WJ Murphy, A. Antunes, E. Teeling, SJ O'Brien: The late miocene radiation of modern felidae: A genetic assessment. In: Science. 311, 2006, pp. 73-77.
- ^ A b M. E. Sunquist, C. Leh, DM Hills, R. Rajaratnam: Rediscovery of the Bornean Bay Cat. In: Oryx. 28, 1994, pp. 67-70.
- ^ A b M. Sunquist, F. Sunquist: Wild Cats of the World . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2002, ISBN 0-226-77999-8 , pp. 48-51.
- ^ E. Meijaard: The bay cat in Borneo. In: Cat News. 27, 1997, pp. 21-23.
- ↑ JCM Payne, CM Francis, K. Phillipps: A field guide to the mammals of Borneo . The Sabah Society, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 1985.
- ↑ a b c d J. Mohd-Azlan, J. Sanderson: Geographic distribution and conservation status of the bay cat Catopuma badia , a Bornean endemic. (PDF file; 186 kB). In: Oryx. 41 (3), 2007, pp. 394-398.
- ^ JE Gray: Description of a new Species of Cat (Felis badia) from Sarawak. In: Proceedings of the Scientific meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the year 1874. 1874, pp. 322-323.
- ↑ WE Johnson, FS Ashiki, M. Menotti Raymond, C. Driscoll, C. Leh, M. Sunquist, L. Johnston, M. Bush, D. Wildt, N. Yuhki, SJ O'Brien: Molecular genetic characterization of two insular Asian cat species, Bornean Bay cat and Iriomote cat. In: SP Wasser, E. Nevo: Evolutionary Theory and Process: Modern perspectives, Papers in Honor of Eviatar Nevo . Kluwer Academic Publishing, Dordrecht 1999, pp. 223-248.
- ↑ M. Rautner, M. Hardiono, RJ Alfred: Borneo: treasure island at risk. Status of Forest, Wildlife, and related Threats on the Island of Borneo. WWF Germany 2005.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Mel Sunquist, Fiona Sunquist: Wild Cats of the World . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2002, ISBN 0-226-77999-8 .
