African Golden Cat

African golden cat. Photo: Johannes Pfleiderer

The African Golden cat is a small to medium-sized wild cat species living in the African forests. It lives in sub-Saharan areas of the continent on the west side as shown in the map below. In short they live in tropical central and western Africa, including the Congo Republic and Uganda.

Map by Michael based on IUCN Red List

They are adapted to hot humid forests. They sleep in trees during daytime and hunt at dawn and dusk i.e. they are crepuscular like many other wild cat species. They are secretive and little is known about their population size but they are in danger because of extensive habitat destruction occurring throughout Africa. This is increasing as there is an increased need for precious metals for car batteries and high tech devices. This necessitates mining which leads to forest destruction.

Appearance

This cat is about twice as big as a domestic cat. They have variable coats but most often it is a golden colour as indicated by the cat's name. Black and grey cats have also been recorded. The coat is slightly spotted with a paler underside. The tail is medium in length. They are solitary hunters. They stalk prey on the ground and in the trees. Their main diet consists of birds, monkeys and tree-hyraxes in the trees and on the ground they hunt rodents, small antelopes and duikers.

The length of head plus body is 69 cm to 90 cm (25.5 inches to 35.5 inches). Their weight varies between 5 kg and 12 kg which is 11 to 26.5 pounds.

Attacks monkeys

Read about an Africa golden cat attacking monkeys by clicking on this link.

Smallest Wild Cat

Smallest wild cat: rusty-spotted cat from Indian and Sri Lanka

The smallest wild cat is the rusty-spotted cat. According to the renown book on the wildcat species, Wild Cats Of The World the minimum size of this cat is 0.8 kg and the maximum size is 1.6 kg. That is 1.7 lbs to 3.53 lbs.

Even at the maximum size the rusty-spotted cat is the same size as the smallest of the domestic cats, called teacup cats or miniature cats.

Below are the vital statistics taken from another PoC page: Rusty-spotted cat where you can read a lot more about this tiny cat.

Characteristic	Measurement
Length of head+body	35-48 centimetres (14-17 inches)
Average weight (approximate)	1.5 kg (3.3 lbs)
Average weight females	1 kg (2.2 lbs)
Average domestic cat weight – for comparison	8-10 lbs
Average weight of miniature domestic cat for comparison	3.5 lbs
Average weight of Black-footed Cat – for comparison	3.5 lb

Its size makes you wonder if it has been domesticated. People like small cats. However, it is not advised to domesticate a genuine wildcat in my opinion. You'll probably have difficulty coping, become disappointed and it will not be fair on the cat either. The rusty-spotted cat is said to be, "not an adaptable species"¹. However 100 years ago two naturists kept rusty-spotted cats as pets. They tame easily apparently. They were acquired as kittens, however. They were active pets blessed with great agility and grace they said.

They can live in abandoned houses within their range. They are frequently killed by local people (Indians and Sri Lankans). They are mistaken for baby leopards and killed. I suppose this is to protect farm livestock. Pretty dumb though as the rusty-spotted cat is no threat to farm livestock. Or perhaps they can prey of hens and the like.

Despite their tiny size they are "extremely fierce"¹ and it seems fearless.

The smallest wild cat is found in India and Sri Lanka.

For the sake of completeness on wild cat species sizes, here they all are:



Note:

1. Wild Cats Of The World - Page 239.



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Smallest Cat Breed

Above: Singapura photo by Helmi Flick. The smallest cat breed is fairly easy to find. First, it is commonsense that the vast majority of domestic cats are going to be of a similar size. The mixed breed cats are all medium sized cats with what I would term "normal" (i.e. to be expected of a domestic cat) appearance. They are well balanced cats, they haven't got wedgie heads or extra long legs.

Although some purebred cats will be a bit on the bigger or smaller side they would normally find that happy middle ground. However, the cat fancy demands that cats be of type (the right appearance for a particular breed) and over a long period of time this objective has separated out cat breeds in terms of size making them more distinct.

That said, one cat is known to be probably the smallest cat breed and it is the Singapura, otherwise known as the Drain Cat (see one in a drain). Thus cat is meant to be native to Singapore but they are very few in Singapore as it happens (if any). This cat is probably a hybrid cat created by the cat fancy. You can read more about this breed on the main website.

Although the Singapura is probably known to be the smallest cat breed there are others that might pose a good challenge to that title. In fact there is more than one. The group of cats called Dwarf Cats would probably produce one or two individual cats that are small enough to be a the lower end of the spectrum of cat size.

There are number of dwarf cat breeds. The founding breed is the Munchkin, a not uncommon cat. The other dwarf cats are quite rare or very rare. These are the Napoleon, Skookum, Kinkalow, Lambkin, Genetta, Knook, Minskin and Bambino. There is one other the Dwelf but there is only a drawing of this cat breed the last time I looked.

These cats are normal cats with short legs due to the dwarfism gene. This will automatically make the cat smaller. I'm guessing here but cat breeders of dwarf cats will probably breed from smaller normal cat breeds (crossed with the Munchkin) as a dwarf cat looks more interesting if she is small. I expect all the dwarf cats to be on the small side.

The Miniature cats and Teacup cats are obviously the smallest but these are not recognized cat breeds. They are normally Persian cats (Traditional Persian) bred small through prolonged selective breeding. I cannot include them in this post as the smallest cat breed.

Finally some cats that are normally mid ranged in terms of size can be smaller and more delicate. The Devon Rex comes mind as such as cat, especially when bred to an extreme. Some of the Modern Siamese and Orientals are also lightweights and smaller than average.

You can see the full range of cat breed sizes on this page: Largest Domestic Cat Breed. The smallest wild cat species is the rusty-spotted cat by the way.

Photograph: Singapura cat copyright Helmi Flick  - please respect copyright. Helmi is a professional photographer.

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