Sunda Leopard Cat

A small, slender wild cat with a bold pattern of dark spots and blotches on a tawny-to-grey coat, superficially resembling a miniature leopard, and distinguished from the marbled cat and bay cat by its smaller, more discrete spotting and shorter tail. The most widespread and frequently recorded small cat on night drives across Sabah. Formally split from the mainland Asian leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) as a separate species in 2017 on genetic, morphological and biogeographic grounds.

Solitary and the most strictly nocturnal of Borneo's five wild cat species, with activity rising sharply at dusk and falling at dawn — the opposite pattern to the largely diurnal marbled cat and bay cat. Hunts rodents, small birds and reptiles, often along forest edges, plantation margins and riverbanks as well as deep forest. Eyeshine is a bright, easy-to-spot orange on a spotlight sweep.