Camera trap film of one of the world’s most elusive cats shows the animal stalking a group of monkeys in Uganda
Conservationists have recorded the first ever video of the African golden cat, the continent’s least-studied wild cat and one of the planet’s most elusive.
In the footage, captured in Kibale national park in south Uganda, the cat stalks and rushes a group of red colobus monkeys before appearing to beat a retreat.
The camera trap film follows the recent publication of the first photographs of African golden cat kittens, which suggested that mothers of the two colourings of the species – a reddish brown and grey – can produce kittens of both colours.
Caracal aurata is a medium-sized cat, about twice the size of a domestic cat, and strongly-built. The secretive animal is only found in central and west Africa and is rarely seen, with most of our knowledge of the cat coming from an increasing use of camera traps, which photographed the first living African golden cat in 2002.
Another new film shows one of the cats sleeping in a tree in Uganda’s Kalinzu forest reserve, where it is harassed by monkey calls until it climbs down.
