Caracal auratus

(Temminck, 1825)

African Golden Cat

Formerly Profelis aurata, Caracal auratus. For similar images go to www.atourworld.com.

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Location:Uganda, Kanungu district, Biwindi Impenetrable National ParkDate taken:Nov 19, 2017Description:Formerly Profelis aurata, Caracal auratus. For similar images go to www.atourworld.com.

Distribution :

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso (?), Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Dem. Rep. Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali (?), Nigeria (?), Rwanda, Senegal (?), Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda.

Image courtesy of the ASM Mammal Images Library · MIL ID: 5554

Taxonomy

Subclass	: Theria
Infraclass	: Placentalia
Magnorder	: Boreoeutheria
Superorder	: Laurasiatheria
Order	: Carnivora
Suborder	: Feliformia
Infraorder	: Aeluroidea
Superfamily	: Feloidea
Family	: Felidae
Subfamily	: Felinae
Genus	: Caracal

Species status

Living

Found in the wild

Listed in MSW3 2005

Authority citation

Temminck, C.J. 1825-04-09. Livraison 4. Pp. 73–156 in Temminck, C.J. 1827. Monographies de Mammalogie. G. Dufour et E. d'Ocagne, Paris, 268 pp.

Authority publication link

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52681266

Original name as described

Felis aurata

Type material

RMNH.MAM.19633

Type kind

holotype

Type specimen URI

https://data.biodiversitydata.nl/naturalis/specimen/RMNH.MAM.19633

Type locality

West Africa. Probably from the coastal region of Lower Guinea.

Biogeographic realm

Afrotropic

Country distribution

Angola · Cameroon · Central African Republic · Republic of the Congo · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Cote d'Ivoire · Equatorial Guinea · Gabon · Ghana · Guinea · Liberia · Nigeria · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Benin? · Burundi? · Gambia? · Guinea-Bissau? · Kenya? · Rwanda? · Senegal? · Sudan? · Togo?

Taxonomy notes

moved from Profelis to Caracal; year of publication of the original description is actually 1825, although it is usually referenced as 1827. Epithet changed from aurata to auratus to match the masculine gender of Caracal, since the Code requires changing the gender of the specific epithet to match the genus if it is an adjective and not a noun in apposition (Art. 34.2.1 and 31.2.1). The gender of Caracal could not be determined (possibly from Turkish, which lacks gender, and Gray 1843 did not specify a gender: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53729649), so we applied Art. 30.2.4 of the Code, which states that a genus-group name is to be treated as masculine if its gender cannot be inferred directly. While aurata was named under Felis (feminine), it is now under Caracal (indet. = masculine) so changed to auratus.

Taxonomy notes citation

Johnson, W.E., Eizirik, E., Pecon-Slattery, J., Murphy, W.J., Antunes, A., Teeling, E. and O'Brien, S.J. 2006. The Late Miocene radiation of modern Felidae: A genetic assessment. Science 311(5757):73-77. doi:10.1126/science.1122277 · Werdelin, L., Yamaguchi, N., Johnson, W.E. and O'Brien, S.J. 2010. Phylogeny and evolution of cats (Felidae). Pp. 59–82 in Macdonald, D.W. and Loveridge, A.J. (eds.). Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. Oxford University Press. a#18073 · Kitchener, A.C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Eizirik, E., Gentry, A., Werdelin, L., Wilting, A., Yamaguchi, N., Abramov, A.V., Christiansen, P., Driscoll, C.A., Duckworth, J.W., Johnson, W., Luo, S.-j., Meijaard, E., O'Donoghue, P., Sanderson, J., Seymour, K., Bruford, M., Groves, C.P., Hoffmann, M., Nowell, K., Timmons, Z. and Tobe, S.S. 2017. A revised taxonomy of the Felidae. The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN/ SSC Cat Specialist Group. Cat News Special Issue 11:1-80. a#35407 · Kitchener, A.C., Simo, F.T., Mugerwa, B. and Sanderson, J.G. 2022. Evidence that Temminck described Felis aurata in 1825, not 1827. Archives of Natural History 49(1):78-85. doi:10.3366/anh.2022.0759

IUCN Red List status

Not Evaluated

Species Permalink

https://mammaldiversity.org/taxon/1005980

Country distribution map

The map below provides a general overview. Most species inhabit only specific regions within countries. Known distribution is shown in green and predicted distribution is in yellow. Hover over the highlighted regions to see the country name.

KnownPredicted distribution

Names and synonyms

Present and past (if available) associated names to the species. Click on a name to view its details.

Total: 19 names and synonyms.

9 more names and synonyms available — use the desktop version to see them all.

Show 9 more names and synonyms

Please send any edits, corrections, or unfilled data (including full citations) to mammaldiversity [at] gmail [dot] com.