Dennis Wong New Straits Times 4 Jan 11;
KUCHING: The Borneo Bay Cat (Catopuma badia), the world's rarest cat species, was recently sighted in the Pulong Tau National Park here.
This heightens the importance of the national park as a reservoir of the rich biodiversity of many endemic, rare and threatened species in the highland area.
Three images of the cat were captured near Batu Lawi and Long Repung on camera traps installed by the Sarawak Forestry Department and Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
Eight years ago, the same species was sighted in the Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary in a joint study involving Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.
The cat, listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list, is totally protected in Sarawak.
A mature bay cat is almost the size of a large domesticated cat with an extra long tail.
It normally has two colour morphs, with the reds being more common than the grays.
Pulong Tau National Park is located in the state's northern highlands in the Miri and Limbang divisions.
The park was gazetted in 2005 to protect an area of about 60,000ha of pristine rainforest, which includes Gunung Murud, Sarawak's highest peak (2,424m) and the Tama Abu Range.
It is the site of the transboundary biodiversity conservation project involving the Kayan Mentarang National Park in East Kalimantan.
The project is supported by the International Tropical Timber Organisation with the state Forestry Department as implementing agency.
