Cat’s out of the bag with first footage of rare feline

A FORMER Clare student has landed a major coup by recording the first known video of an African golden cat as part of her work to protect the rare species.

Zoologist Laila Bahaa-el-din had spent over two years studying the “near-threatened” African Golden Cat, without ever seeing one.

However, she managed to record what is believed to be the only publicly released video of the species in the wild.

The video, recorded by a motion-activated camera placed in a Gabon forest, shows an African golden cat: a shy, medium-sized feline that ducks human contact and lives in central African forests.

Laila moved to Scariff with her mother Christina Greenwood and stepfather when she was just 13 in 1988 and went on to spend five years in Scariff Community College.

Inspired by her grandfather, Laila completed a degree in Zoology in Nottingham University and a course on Tropical Biology where a field course led her to a forest in Uganda.

Analysing the number of spots on a Golden Cat, she hopes to estimate of the number of cats in a particular area.

Considering the Golden Cat has lost about 40% of its range in areas such as the North and Ivory Coast, she said measures were necessary to protect its habitat and prey.

“As far as we know, it’s never before been filmed in the wild for the public domain,” said Luke Hunter, president of conservation group Panthera.

Laila, who is leading the survey team, hopes its population estimates in four categories of Gabonese forest can give governments, logging companies and other groups information to help preserve the species.

“I don’t think I can put capturing the video into words. I live and dream golden cats most days. To get back to camp and put the footage on the computer and have this cat basically posing for the camera, it’s incredible. It was of a young male who spent quite some time at the site, sitting right in front of the camera, and playing around the area. There was even some footage of him chasing a bat,” Laila said.

“Still images give me clues about their ecology, but I didn’t have a real feeling for the cat until those videos. And here at last I felt like I was getting to know my study animal. And perhaps these videos can now help to raise the profile of the golden cat, and help stop it from losing another 44% of its range before anyone takes notice,” she said.