The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Panthera released camera trap footage today from Uganda’s Kibale National Park showing a rarely seen African golden cat (Caracal aurata).
The cat was recorded scent-marking after it was attracted to a camera site “baited” with Calvin Klein Obsession for Men, which is frequently used by WCS scientists to attract cats and other wildlife to remote cameras.
WCS is supporting a study of these poorly known forest-dependent cats to better understand their conservation needs and how they may be affected by overhunting and deforestation.
The first known wild footage of a golden cat was taken in 2011 by Panthera scientists in Gabon:
One surprising finding of this ongoing research is that these cats are not strictly nocturnal as previously thought, but “cathemeral” — active both night and day. Nevertheless, most scientists working in Africa’s rain forests have never seen a live specimen in the wild.
(Source: WCS press release, 12.11.2013; Panthera press release, 08.09.2011)
