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- Scientists have discovered six different ‘colour morphs’ (cinnamon, golden, grey, melanistic, ocelot and tightly rosette) of the Asiatic golden cat in Arunachal Pradesh. This may be the world’s greatest number of different-colored wild cat species ever reported in one area.
- The study was carried out by scientists from Zoological Society of London, and University College London. It has been published in Ecological Society of America’s journal Ecology.
- Colour morphs are occurrence of two or more discrete colour forms of the animal within a population, due to a genetic mutation. For example- Black Panther is a colour morph of the common leopard.
- The colour morphs are not classified as different sub-species as they may live in the same area and even inter-breed.
- Asiatic Golden cat is a medium-sized wild cat. It is found in Nepal, Bhutan, north-east India, Myanmar, China, and South East Asia (Thailand, Sumatra and Indonesia). It is listed as ‘Near Threatened’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.



