Got to be one of my favorite species too this animal is one of the most richly coloured I have ever seen - it is almost certainly an Indochinese Golden Cat (Pardofelis temminckii temminckii) as it is not robust enough for Chinese, and the pattern and colour is wrong for Tibetan.
This photo, by the by, is certainly the best of those you have uploaded
Got to be one of my favorite species too this animal is one of the most richly coloured I have ever seen - it is almost certainly an Indochinese Golden Cat (Pardofelis temminckii temminckii) as it is not robust enough for Chinese, and the pattern and colour is wrong for Tibetan.
This photo, by the by, is certainly the best of those you have uploaded
I know you will certainly like this species
One of the reason I like golden cat is while tiger, leopard and other felids become so fat in zoos, the golden cat will always keep good shape. I mean, all the golden cats I have seen in zoos, including the ones in Beijing (RIP), Chengdu and Guangzhou Zoo, all keep good shape and full of muscle.
As Guangzhou locates in southmost of China mainland, its fauna is indeed similar with Indo-China.
The other giveaway factor is the fact that for whatever reason, even in China nowhere is known to keep dominicanorum - preferring to keep the nominate subspecies or (very rarely) tristis. But it is always worth knowing how to tell the subspecies apart just in case a collection *does* turn out to hold dominicanorum!
In point of fact there is only a single dominicanorum known in captivity, a very elderly animal here in the UK at Thrigby Hall.
The other giveaway factor is the fact that for whatever reason, even in China nowhere is known to keep dominicanorum - preferring to keep the nominate subspecies or (very rarely) tristis. But it is always worth knowing how to tell the subspecies apart just in case a collection *does* turn out to hold dominicanorum!
In point of fact there is only a single dominicanorum known in captivity, a very elderly animal here in the UK at Thrigby Hall.
In fact I doubt the subspecies classification of golden cat...... Because it is hard to believe the golden cats in Sumatra, malay and Indo-China are the same subspecies! I believe the golden cats in southwest mountains of China is a distinct subspecies though, as many species show the same pattern.
