African Golden Cat (Caracal aurata) Classification

Both leopard Panthera pardus pardus and African golden cat Caracal aurata occur throughout the Congo Basin and coastal forests of Central Africa. However, there remains a paucity of documented occurrences of these species within the region.

Here, we document both species in the Dja Faunal Reserve DFR, Cameroon from images captured in a camera trap survey. This represents the first confirmed occurrence of leopard for 18 years and the first documentation of African golden cat within the reserve.

Bruce, T.; Ndjassi, C.; Lebreton, M.; Wacher, T.; Fowler, A.; Mbobda, R.B.T.; Olson, D.
African golden cat and leopard persist in the Dja Faunal Reserve, Cameroon
2018  Cat News (68): 24-25

Highlights
• African golden cats are not as naturally rare as previously thought.
• Their population densities decrease with increasing human disturbance.
• The species is particularly susceptible to wire snares, used for bushmeat hunting.
• Managing timber concessions as part of conservation estates is crucial for wildlife.

Africa's equatorial forests are threatened by widespread deforestation and bushmeat hunting, with both threats spreading into formerly remote areas due to rapid human population growth and large-scale expansions of commercial resource extraction such as logging and mining, as well as forest clearing for agriculture. Many globally threatened species are endemic to these forests, but the potential effects of these threats are not well understood.

Using the case of the forest-dependent African golden cat, we assessed the potential effects of disturbance including logging and hunting on population density.

We applied spatially-explicit capture-recapture models to camera trap data to estimate density across a human land-use gradient at five sites in central Gabon. We found density was highest at a pristine, undisturbed site (16.23 [± 5.84 SE] individuals per 100 km²) and lowest at a village site with moderate levels of mostly subsistence bushmeat hunting (3.8 [± 2.23 SE] individuals per 100km²).

Logging concessions can support important densities of the species (10.18 [± 3.54 SE] and 12.84 [± 4.25 SE] individuals per 100 km²), with the higher estimate of the two for the concession certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) versus the non-certified concession.

While protected intact forests are the main strongholds for golden cats, well-managed logging concessions may also play an important role in the conservation of golden cats and other threatened species. 

Bahaa-el-din, L.; Sollmann, R.; Hunter, L.T.B.; Slotow, R.; MacDonald, D.W.; Henschel, P.
Effects of human land-use on Africa's only forest-dependent felid: the African golden cat Caracal aurata
2016  Biological Conservation (199): 1-9

1. The African golden cat Caracal aurata is endemic to tropical Africa. It is one of the world's least-studied felids and is considered rare in most of its geographic range. The status of the African golden cat in the wild has never been rigorously assessed, but the species is increasingly threatened by habitat degradation, loss and fragmentation, and by unsustainable hunting.

2. We describe the African golden cat and review its taxonomy, distribution, ecology, behaviour, threats and conservation status. The information presented here is based on the literature and on new data from the first two intensive field studies on the species (underway in Gabon and Uganda).

3. The golden cat is phenotypically variable. Within the two main colour morphs, golden/reddish-brown and grey, there is wide variation and intergradation. Both of these morphs occur throughout the species' range. Melanistic and chocolate brown morphs also occur but are uncommon.

4. Recent genetic analysis indicates that the golden cat is closely related to the caracal Caracal caracal, and it has, therefore, been changed from the genus Profelis to Caracal.

5. The golden cat is predominantly terrestrial and cathemeral. Its diet consists mainly of rodents and small ungulates.

6. Field studies in Gabon and Uganda have established that golden cats can be locally common. They are prone to capture by wire snares, however, and are absent in forests hunted at commercial scales.

7. Species-focused camera trap surveys are effective for collecting distribution, abundance, population structure, ecological and behavioural data on golden cats.

Bahaa-el-din, L.; Henschel, P.; MacDonald, D.W.; Mills, D.; Slotow, R.; Hunter, L.
The African golden cat Caracal aurata: Africa's least-known felid
2014  Mammal Review (45): 63-77