Bay cat
| Bay cat | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Catopuma |
| Species: | C. badia |
| Binomial name | |
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Catopuma badia (Gray, 1874) |
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| The blue dots on this map of Borneo indicate bay cat records from 2003 to 2005. | |
| Synonyms | |
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Pardofelis badia |
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Pardofelis badia
The bay cat (Catopuma badia), also known as the Bornean cat, Bornean bay cat, or Bornean marbled cat, is a wild cat endemic to the island of Borneo that appears relatively rare compared to sympatric felids, based on the paucity of historical, as well as recent records. In 2002, the IUCN classified the forest-dependent species as Endangered because of a projected population decline by more than 20% by 2020 due to habitat loss. As of 2007, the effective population size was suspected to be below 2,500 mature individuals.
Bay cats have historically been recorded as rare and today seem to occur at relatively low density, even in pristine habitat.
In 1874, John Edward Gray first described a bay cat under the binominal Felis badia on the basis of a skin and skull collected by Alfred Russel Wallace in Sarawak in 1856. This cat was first thought to be a kitten of an Asian golden cat. In 1932, Reginald Innes Pocock placed the species in the monotypic genus Badiofelis. In 1978, it was placed in the genus Catopuma.
Tissue and blood samples were acquired only in late 1992 from the female brought to the Sarawak Museum.Morphological and genetic analysis confirmed the close relationship with the Asian golden cat, and that the two species had been separated from a common ancestor for 4.9 to 5.3 million years, long before the geological separation of Borneo from mainland Asia.
The bay cat's classification as Catopuma was widely recognized until 2006. Because of the evident close relationship of the bay cat and the Asian golden cat with the marbled cat, all three species were suggested in 2006 to be grouped in the genus Pardofelis.
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