Community Forest Supports Three Different Morphs and First Record of the 'Banded' Morph of Asiatic Golden Cat (Catopuma temminckii) from India

Observing the different pattern of coat colours in cat species attracted the attention of biologist to study the different morphs in their habitats. One such cat with different body morphs i.e., Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii, hereafter AGC) distributed throughout eastern Nepal, Northeast India, Thailand, Myanmar, China, Sumatra and Indonesia covered an elevation range of 0-4000m. This rare and elusive cat is exceptionally polymorphic and so far reported with six different morphs throughout its distribution range. To monitor threatened vertebrate species, we deployed 79 camera traps in different habitat of West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh, India which resulted in total efforts of 7313 camera trap nights. In the different camera traps, observed nine photo capture of AGC in five localities of West Kameng with different morphs.Among which, we first reported a new 'banded' morph of AGC which is different from the earlier observed morphs throughout distribution range. These evidences highlights the importance of community forests as a suitable habitat for various conservation importance and rare carnivore species in West Kameng district.