World's most elusive cat captured hunting on video for first time

World's most elusive cat captured hunting on video for first time
World's most elusive cat captured hunting on video for first time



Conservationists have managed to capture the elusive African golden cat on camera-trap film the first time hunting in the daylight.

The footage was captured in the Kibale National Park in south Uganda.

The cat can be seen launching an attack on a group of colobus monkeys, but is unsuccessful in its attempt.




The camera trap was set up by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

According to Live Science, African golden cats are found in the forests of central and west Africa. They are comparable in size to bobcats and can weigh up to 35lbs. Colobus monkeys, meanwhile, can weigh up to 27lbs and can put up a good fight with an African golden cat. One video in shows the monkeys harassing one of the cats trying to sleep in a tree.

According to the Guardian, Laila Bahaa-el-din, a researcher for the endangered cat NGO Panthera, said the footage shed new light on the creature's hunting techniques.

"It really does give us insight. We really never had any footage like that before. The monkey must weigh more than the cat itself," she explained.

"This was a cat we didn't know anything about a few years ago, it was thought to be nocturnal, we now know it isn't. It was thought to spend most of its time in the trees, we now know it actually spends most of its time on the ground. Here, we're learning it hunts on the ground, not in trees, even if it goes up to the trees sometimes for security."

Bahaa-el-din has spent four years studying the species and has only ever seen one cat.

She wanted they are under threat from human development, through habitat degradation and "unsustainable hunting".

She added: "We've just been assessing it for the Red List [of endangered species] and the evidence is pretty dire. Bushmeat hunting is pretty ubiquitous across their range, and golden cats are really prone to getting caught in snares."





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