Rare Cat Poses for Camera for First Time

08/30/2011

I love watching wildlife footage captured on hidden trail cameras because you know the animals are behaving totally normally and are not being influenced by human presence.  That was the case with the recent footage of a rare cat species called the African golden cat that was captured by a trail cam funded by conservation group Panthera.  The fact that this medium-sized wild cat is so rarely observed is what makes this footage odd: it's actually the first time anyone has ever filmed it in the wild.

African golden cats are native to tropical forests of equatorial Africa and the species plays an important role in the mythologies of the local people that share its territory.  Pygmy tribes traditionally carry tails fo the African golden cat as good luck talismans when hunting elephants and other tribes use African golden cat skin in circumcision rituals. 

Despite this prominent cultural status in certain tribes, the African golden cat is considered the least known of all of the thirty-six wild cat species, which is again what makes this footage so amazing.  It's listed as a Near Threatened species due to habitat loss and overhunting.

Here's the trail camera footage showing a healthy-looking and curious wild African golden cat for the first time ever on video.

 

 

If you're a cat lover, be sure to catch Cats 101, Must Love Cats, My Cat from Hell, and To Cute! Kittens, all on Animal Planet, and click here to get other Animal Oddity posts about cats.

Comments

[Darrah]

Its amazing how all cats act alike. Wild, big, small, or in between.

[Sue]

What a beautiful animal!Didn't know there were so many different feline species in Africa. Beautiful name too.

[best game camera]

This is an iconic image indeed. Which brings us to conservation issues where we need to stop poaching wildlife to insure that these cats will still exist and not by photograph alone.