Marbled Cat

A beautifully patterned small cat with large, irregular marbled blotches similar in style to a clouded leopard's coat, and an exceptionally long, bushy tail nearly as long as its body — the clearest field mark against the bay cat's plain coat and thinner tail, and against the leopard cat's smaller, discrete spots.

Long assumed to be strictly arboreal and nocturnal, but multiple camera-trap studies across Borneo have overturned that: the marbled cat is now understood to be predominantly diurnal, with activity peaking around dawn and midday, and camera-trap footage also shows it moving confidently on the ground — 'semi-arboreal' is a more accurate description than purely tree-dwelling. Most confirmed Sabah sightings still come from Danum Valley and Deramakot night and day drives.