First camera trap photo of the Borneo Bay Cat

•'Extinct' Bay Cat photographed in wildlife sanctuary article by Audrey Edwards in The Star, Malaysia
•In a Snap: Rare cat comes back to life Reuters news report

University of Sarawak researcher Mohammed Azlan is using camera traps to shed light on the distribution and status of the rare Borneo Bay Cat Catopuma badia (one of just four cat species classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals). He wasn't sure if he would be successful, since there are so few records of this mysterious wild cat. However, on his first survey, in Sarawak's Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, located on the Malaysia-Indonesia border on the island of Borneo, he captured this unmistakeable and unique image.

•Azlan and Munau's full press release: Report on the first camera trap photo of the Borneo Bay Cat in the wild in Sarawak (MS Word)

The ongoing Borneo Bay Cat (Catopuma badia) survey is sponsored by a generous gift from Bay Area CAT supporter Gibson Anderson. Jim Sanderson of Conservation International provided the camera trap equipment. The State Forest Department of Sarawak, Malaysia, approved the project and provides oversight and support. Read more about the Borneo Bay Cat from the IUCN Cat Specialist Group's Cat Action Plan.

Another striking photo of a rare member of the family Felidae: a marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata sneaks up on and checks out the camera.

Mohammed Azlan is on the left, sitting in an interview about the local occurrence of wild cats with villagers in a traditional longhouse.

As recently announced in Cat News 38, earlier this year intrepid wildlife photographer Vladimir Dinets managed to capture the first photograph of the Borneo Bay Cat in the wild, in a chance nocturnal encounter in Sarawak's Gunung Mulu National Park. His photo of this cat in its grey phase, along with other remarkable cat images, are on his website.