Description

The Borneo bay cat is visually similar to the Asiatic golden cat, but has less visible patterns on the forehead and is smaller from it.

The Borneo bay cat’s fur is chestnut or silver in colour. There are also melanistic individuals which fur is almost completely black.

Its head and ears are rounded and the tail is extremely long, constituting about 73% of the length of the rest of the body.

The underside of the Borneo bay cat’s body is creamy, including the tail, and darker dots appear there. The coat on the tip of the tail is the brightest, but it also has a black spot. On the cheeks there are two light-brown stripes, running horizontally from the nose to the back of the head.

The back sides of the Borneo bay cat’s ears are always slightly darker than the rest of the body.

The cat has bright spots just above the eyes that connect to the pattern of darker stripes on the forehead.

What’s interesting, at the back of the head of each The Borneo bay cat appears the letter M written in a darker fur colour.

Behaviour

The Borneo bay cat only occurs on the island of Borneo with an area of ​​743,330 km2 (287,001 mi2). This means the density of the cat’s occurrence is 0.3/100 km2 (0,8/100 mi2)

There are very few photos of this catopuma species, and many of the Borneans have never seen this cat in the wild. There is no specific information as to whether this is the result of a small population or perhaps elusiveness of these animals.

Negligible observations of the Borneo bay cat indicate its dependence on forests. Some of the pictures also come from heaths, mountainous areas and peat swamps.

All photos of the Borneo bay cat show the cat alone, so it is probably a solitary animal. It exhibits activity at night and day with a predominance of daily functioning.

Borneo bay cats hunt for birds, mice and monkeys. It is possible that they use terrestrial and arboreal techniques because they were also seen in the treetops. If the cat has the option, it will also eat the carcass.

The Borneo bay cat is dangerous and can be very brutal, despite its small size.

Threats

Its population is threatened with extinction and is decreasing. The main danger for the Borneo bay cat is probably the shrinking of forest areas. Cutting down forests for plantations is a common practice on the island where it lives.

Being a very rare animal is in itself a threat to the Borneo bay cat. Poachers are aware of this and hunt them for fur and pet trade.

Source of picture: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormi_bornea%C5%84ski

Author: Małgorzata Banaszkiewicz