6 color morphs of Asiatic Golden Cat found in Arunachal

DesertRhino150

DesertRhino150

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Just saw this article that may be of interest:

A wide-ranging camera trap study across the Dibang Valley of Northeast India (carried out by ZSL scientists) has found six different colour morphs of the Asiatic golden cat occurring in the area - the standard golden form, cinnamon, grey, melanistic, ocelot and an entirely new morph named 'tightly-rosetted' which has leopard-like rosettes on a grey base coat.

The theory is that for all these morphs to coexist in the same place must mean there are some benefits, with each morph best-suited to occupying different habitats at different elevations.

While the research has been submitted an undergone full peer-review it does not seem to have been fully written up yet. Here is the page with the research:
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Included below is a more complete article about the research:
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-benefits.html
 
The study was published last week in "Ecology", the Ecological Society of America’s journal. ZSL researchers were studying human-wildlife interactions in the Dibang Valley when their camera traps got photos of all 6 varieties, one of which was previously unknown (second row, right). This is the largest variety of color morphs ever recorded in one cat species in one area. Researchers will now be trying to understand the hows and whys, since each morph seems to have some sort of ecological advantage.

Six-different-%E2%80%98colour-morphs%E2%80%99-of-Asiatic-golden-cat-discovered-in-Dibang.jpg


Seems like the species name is a bit of a misnomer ;)

Six different ‘colour morphs’ of Asiatic golden cat discovered in Dibang | The Arunachal Times
 
There are some extremely cool details in the full paper (worth reading for those who have access, but assuming that most don't);

"Our data show that there is indeed a statistically significant difference in the elevations where specific color morphs are found (Figure 1; see Appendix S 2 for statistical analyses)... The golden form is the most widely distributed form. However, we recorded gray, melanistic , and ocelot morphs over a much wider altitudinal range than previously described"

"Higher elevations (>3000 meters) show a tendency towards more patterned forms while lower elevations (<1700 meters) are dominated by solid -colored morphs (cinnamon, golden, or melanistic )...Additionally, different morphs were active at different times of the day..."

And there's also some speculation about reasons for this and what appears to possibly be spatial and temporal specialisation of different Golden Cat morphs. Will be very interesting to see more research on this in future and what extent there really is niche differentiation between morphs.
 
For a long time (years, since I first saw a photo) one of my dream cats to photograph is the ocelot morph of the golden cat. I am aware one of our members has posted photos of specimens in two zoos in China, but I really don't want to go to China. If one ever shows up in Europe, however...
 
Arizona Docent said:
For a long time (years, since I first saw a photo) one of my dream cats to photograph is the ocelot morph of the golden cat. I am aware one of our members has posted photos of specimens in two zoos in China, but I really don't want to go to China. If one ever shows up in Europe, however...
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Why that particular one?
 
Arizona Docent said:
For a long time (years, since I first saw a photo) one of my dream cats to photograph is the ocelot morph of the golden cat. I am aware one of our members has posted photos of specimens in two zoos in China, but I really don't want to go to China. If one ever shows up in Europe, however...
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Why don't you want to go to China?
 
FunkyGibbon said:
Why don't you want to go to China?
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I presume his thinking is along the same lines as the reason he doesn't want to visit the Bengali collection with Marbled Cat:

Arizona Docent said:
Plus (at the risk of sounding like a snob and offending an entire nation) I am at an age now where I enjoy certain basic amenities and upscale Singapore is more to my tastes than Bangladesh.
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Arizona Docent said:
Too far, too expensive, too difficult to get around if you only speak English and Spanish.
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Just some food for thought (I respect your decision as it is):

Direct flights from LAX to Vienna are 11.45 hours, from LAX to Chengdu is 14.45 hours. It's 25% further, which may or may not be viewed as significant, but shouldn't be a deal-breaker I think. (return flights are actually about 12.30 hours on both routes, because of jet streams I guess)

On cost you are actually simply incorrect. Flights are obviously hugely variable, but just randomly searching for March 2020 I found direct return flights to Chengdu for $500. You can find similar prices to Vienna but not direct which obviously adds several hours. Once you are inside China almost everything is massively cheaper than the West. Hotels, taxis and trains and restaurants are all fractions of the cost you would pay at home. Attractions can be quite expensive, but public zoos (like the ones holding the golden cats) are certainly not. One additional coat to consider is the visa, which is apparently $140.

Language wise you are correct that there are some challenges, however it won't surprise you to hear that I consider them entirely surmountable. So one option is to take the money you have saved on hotels and transport and spend some of it on an English-speaking guide. You could organise this through a good hotel, but the cities with the golden cats are pretty off the beaten track and this might not be an option. It might therefore be necessary to arrange it in Chengdu which would obviously add to the cost but would be more convenient. A much better choice in my opinion would be to buy a China sim card, make sure you have Maps software that works in the country (not Google!), get your hotel in Chengdu to set you up with written instructions for taxi drivers etc and then head to Zigong. Yes, many people won't speak English (although young people should have some basic ability), but in a small city people will want to help you anyway and the chances of anyone trying to take advantage of you are very remote. If you have mapping software then using buses actually gets really easy and they are absurdly cheap. And taxis will still be a good option as well.

Beyond Golden cats Sichuan obviously has a lot to offer zoologically speaking, and as you are a fan of architecture then to make a full trip of it a number of options open up. You could head north to Xi'an and Beijing (via the ancient city of Pingyao), or south to Chongqing and Guilin (for the karst landscape), taking in the minority villages in between them. On this line it's easy to end up in Hong Kong, which is a real delight.

In two weeks in China you can fit a lot in and I do think it's something worth considering, as the country is far more developed than people realise, but can still be done incredibly cheaply if you have the time and patience for that. Alternatively by spending a bit more money you can life pretty easy for yourself.
 
If you can use internet to book hotels, and use taxis to move around it should be relatively easy. Occassionally use a translation service on your smartphone or look for a geeky-looking young Chinese who would probably speak English.

I travelled around China before geolocation, internet and smartphones and with only a paper guidebook. Actually it was quite easy to move around by finding English-speaking information post, some English-speaking young people, and point text in the phrasebook. And there were lots of young people who wanted to chat and practise their English. We did everything by public transport. China is noisy, tiring, but is inherently a technologized and urban society.
 
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