image credit: felinest.com
image credit: dfg photography
image credit: kaeryn
image credit: sparky2000Habitat: Southeastern Asia, from Tibet to Sumatra
Status: Near Threatened
I only just recently found out about the Asian Golden Cat or Temminck’s Golden Cat from an article on RedOrbit in which an Asian Golden Cat had been rescued from a snare in Malaysia. The poor creature had been destined for the cooking pot! Apparently locals find their meat quite tasty and this is one of the reasons why the number of Asian Golden Cats have declined so sharply (though habitat loss is also an extremely important factor).
Some countries use the name “firecat” for the animal due to its reddish-brown, and sometimes sandy-gold, coloring. Officials are unsure just how many of these creatures remain in the wild.
