Description
See Rusty-spotted cat description. The scientific name is: Prionailurus rubiginosus. It would seem that the most noticeable feature of this wildcat is its diminutive size. It is one of the two smallest of the wildcats, the other being the Black-footed Cat. Their weight is similar to that of a domestic miniature cat. These are the vital statistics and some interesting comparisons:
Characteristic | Measurement |
Length of head+body | 35-48 centimetres (14-17 inches) |
Average weight (approximate) | 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) |
Average weight females | 1 kg (2.2 lbs) |
Average domestic cat weight – for comparison | 8 lbs |
Average weight of miniature domestic cat for comparison | 3.5 lbs |
Average weight of Black-footed Cat – for comparison | 3.5 lb |
The coat is the usual heavily ticked, tabby coat with very rusty markings. The best-known domestic cat with a ticked coat is the Abyssinian cat. As can be seen, the coat has a ground colour of grey with rust-coloured spots and markings over the body and face with a white underbelly. The eyes are very large and round. The large size must have evolved for survival as a nocturnal and arboreal cat. This means the cat is active at night and spends a lot of time in the forest trees.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ Assessment
As mentioned, the classification is Near Threatened at 2022.
The reason for this classification is as follows: the population is decreasing. They don’t know the number of mature individuals but the population is not severely fragmented. A major threat is habitat loss as usual due to extended farming enterprises which is a serious problem for wildlife in South Asia. Prime habitat for this cat represents about 1/4 of its distribution. 75% of its current habitat may be converted for human use: urban developments, industrial developments et cetera. The rusty-spotted cat lives in human-dominated areas where there is change to the landscape. 90% of its population is in India with the remaining 10% in Sri Lanka.
Range, Habitat and Ecology
The most recent distribution map is below (Red List 2022):
Below are some earlier maps which I don’t want to remove because they are of historical interest I believe. You can see that they have decided to expand the distribution of this cat. We don’t know why. It may be just that they have more information and therefore the assessment is better rather than the fact that the species has expanded into new areas.
The Rusted-spotted Cats range in (2009) indicated below in the map (but see the map lower down):

The map above (modified by me) is published under Wikimedia® creative commons license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. User: MichaelFrey. The map above is slightly different from the one below that I made up from information from the Red List website using a free blank map from the About.com website:
In this more recent assessment of range, it is larger in the north and the boundary in the north is not a straight line. This would seem to be due to research in 2002 and beyond, which established that it is found over a much larger area of India. [Sunquist and Sunquist 2002, Patel and Jackson 200 6, Manakadan and Sivakumar 2006, Patel 2006, Vyas et al. 2007. (src: Red List)].
Also, the range in Sri Lanka does not completely cover the country as in the older map. There is an area in the west where the Rusty-spotted Cat is not found according to the Red List – see map.
As at 2022 is found in the following areas: India (Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu-Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa); Nepal; Sri Lanka. Please note that the date of the assessment is April 20, 2014. The Red List is sadly consistently out of date but this is the best information that we have.
What does the Indian landscape look like? Here is a fine photograph, which gives a feel for it and more:

Photo above by mindstock
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