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Ancestor: Felis catus (Domestic Cat)

Descendants: Bristle Cats
Weaving Cat
Tunnelcats

Size: 45 cm length, 30 cm height

Dietary Needs: Small mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, aquatic molluscs, prawns and crayfish.

Life Cycle: Cats are placental mammals. Female cats go into estrous sometimes multiple times between early spring and late summer, but where winters get cold enough for snow they enter an anestrus in autumn that lasts until middle of the winter.  Kittens take a year to both mature and learn everything they need to survive. Queens (their mothers) care for them until they become reproductively mature. Toms (the males who compete to mate with females) don't typically care for kittens.

Kittens are born helpless, unable to see or walk. They are vulnerable to bad weather and male cats who did not father them. Their mother usually picks a hidden shelter for them to grow up in, such as a rabbit burrow, inside an old tree trunk, or in a cave.

Other: They only live in habitats shaded by trees and thick on the ground level with shrubs. To other cats this habitat is inconvenient and has difficult winters, but this small cat with it's thick fur is at home here. Their shy temperment and aversion to the open light makes them elusive.

Their spring coat sheddings are excellent nest lining for birds and mice just when they need it.

Despite their close affinity with the shaded forest, on hot summer days they sometimes enter rivers or coastal water in search of respite from the heat and also aquatic prey.