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| September 17, 2009 | Elusive golden cat photographed in Uganda's jungle | | London:
The elusive wild African golden cat has been photographed deep in the jungle of Uganda. The
African golden cat is a medium-sized cat, about 80cm long, that lives within forest
across central and west Africa. According to a report by BBC News, biologist Dr
Gary Aronsen of Yale University in the US, captured three images of the golden
cat with a digital infrared camera trap. Although taken in black and white, the
new photos reveal this particular golden cat actually has a dark coat. The cat
is so rare few researchers working in African forests have seen it. A colleague
of Dr Aronsen's has worked for years in Kibale National Park, Uganda where the
photos were taken, and has seen the animal only once, while Dr Aronsen knows of
only one other published photograph of the cat in the wild, taken in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that while many villagers and
locals may see the cat crossing roads, or maybe raiding domesticates, there are
just not that many researcher sightings. We're usually looking for other things,"
he said. "As a result, there are no direct field studies of the African golden
cat," said Dr Aronsen. Despite its name, the cat's fur colour is variable and
it can be either spotted or not. "The golden cat is melanistic, meaning that its
colour varies over its lifetime, and across the continent," explained Dr Aronsen.
"I was disappointed that the cameras could not give me more data on (the cat's)
colour, but the images suggest it is a 'dark phase' cat," he added. Dr Aronsen
originally set up his camera trap to take images of primates living within the
park. "For the most part, the cameras capture amazing images of elephants, monkeys,
chimpanzees, duiker and buffalo. The cameras also can record movies, so you can
see multiple animals in a group, such as chimpanzeesm," he said. But he was still
surprised when it recorded three separate images of a golden cat. "That meant
that the camera was located within the cat's core area," he said. The images were
taken in an old-growth forest patch located within a place called Mainaro, which
is a patchwork of old-growth, regenerating, and replanted forests, Dr Aronsen
explained. "Given that three images were captured within an old-growth patch,
I'd say that the Kibale golden cats may prefer this habitat. But, the range of
any cat is large, and so they can go anywhere to hunt," he said.
September 17, 2009 | |
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