ECOTALK: Uganda’s elusive African Golden Cat faces growing threats

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:14][snorts] >> Deep in the forest of Africa lives one of the continent's most elusive predators, rarely seen, barely understood, and now fighting for survival. Known locally as Embaka and Ruchiga and Embache in Luganda, the African golden cat, scientifically known as Caracal Aurata, is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It's very shy from people, like it's very good at hiding.

[00:00:41]Um but also uh the natural history is not on its side uh because it has probably one of the lowest fecundity rates um in in in uh in in in mammals or in in in in wild cats uh to the extent that it gives um one live birth a year, and 70% of the time it gives birth to one kitten. The African golden cat is Africa's only endemic wildcat species found exclusively in tropical forests. Its coat is in three colors. So, we have the melanistic one, which is black, like peach, like my shirt.

[00:01:20]Um we have the golden brown, um the one we have in the background, and this is the most common morph. Then you also have the gray, the gray morph. But actually we believe there is a morph that's in between gray and golden brown.

[00:01:34]The African golden cat is only in the the dense tropical forest of Africa. It hunts anything that's smaller than a mouse. It hunts birds. It hunts monkeys.

[00:01:43]If it has an opportunity, it will kill a goat or to it will kill a sheep.

[00:01:47]>> But documenting the species is no easy task. So, I've been using camera traps since since 2010, and actually that's how I discovered the animal in the first place.

[00:01:55]I set camera traps out there to understand you know, what animals are present in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. And that's the one of the animal that showed up in camera traps. I had no idea what this animal was. Researchers rely heavily on motion-sensitive camera traps placed deep in forests, sometimes waiting months or years before capturing a single image. My work is happening in 19 countries across the continent. Um but within those countries um we are doing camera trapping in 34 of these of these forests.

[00:02:29]And basically what we are trying to do with these um with the camera traps is for us to not only to know where the animals are, but also to be able to estimate how many of them may be out there. In Uganda, the species has been confirmed in at least 13 forest ecosystems, including Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Kibale National Park, and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. There is an anecdotal information that also get them in Mount Elgon National Park.

[00:02:56]But we've been looking for the past 3 years and we haven't seen them. But we haven't we are we are not yet done.

[00:03:00]We're still looking all around the country to confirm other places, but for now on record they are 13. I was lucky enough to see these rare cats in captivity at the CCT Conservation Center in Butambala, a rare opportunity considering how difficult they are to spot in the wild.

[00:03:20]One cat named Chloe cautiously moved closer to observe us before retreating back into hiding. Come get me.

[00:03:29]Come.

[00:03:31]So you see that that hair that that that that hair. Another remained fixed on the cameraman watching every movement carefully.

[00:03:42]At times, the cats crouched low in attack position, instincts sharpened by life as solitary hunters.

[00:03:51]Hi friend. Oh, that's a good one. But despite their stealth and survival instincts, these predators face a silent and deadly threat in the wild. But I think to to if I could list three, I could list uh bushmeat hunting, habitat loss, and degradation. Wire snares set for bushmeat hunting have become one of the greatest dangers to these species. And because the traps are indiscriminate, anything that passes through can become a victim.

[00:04:18]Because the snares are not really targeting African golden cats, or they're not even targeting chimpanzees, or elephants, or or or or gorillas for the case of Bwindi.

[00:04:30]But they're catching genets, they're catching civets, they're catching um chimpanzees, they're catching African golden cats, they're catching all so many other species of wildlife which the hunters are not interested in.

[00:04:44]For the African golden cat, Africa's most elusive and rarest wild feline, the future may depend not just on the forest it calls home, but on the people who live beside them. Protecting the African golden cat may not attract the same global attention as gorillas or elephants, but scientists say its survival is equally important to the health of Africa's forests. In part two next week, we'll be looking at the organization leading efforts to save the species and how local communities are becoming central to its survival.

[00:05:15]I'm Benjamin Jumba, NTV Eco Talk.

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