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Africa's equatorial forests are threatened by widespread deforestation and bushmeat hunting, with both threats spreading into formerly remote areas due to rapid human population growth and large-scale expansions of commercial resource extraction such as logging and mining, as well as forest clearing for agriculture. Many globally threatened species are endemic to these forests, but the potential effects of these threats are not well understood. Using the case of the forest-dependent African golden cat, we assess the potential effects of disturbance including logging and hunting on population density. We applied spatially-explicit capture-recapture models to camera trap data to estimate density across a human land-use gradient at five sites in central Gabon. We found density was highest at a pristine, undisturbed site (16.23 [± 5.84 SE] individuals per 100 km 2 ) and lowest at a village site with moderate levels of mostly subsistence bushmeat hunting (3.8 [± 2.23 SE] individuals per 100 km 2 ). Logging concessions can support important densities of the species (10.18 [± 3.54 SE] and 12.84 [± 4.25 SE] individuals per 100 km 2 ), with the higher estimate of the two for the concession certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) versus the non-certified concession. While protected intact forests are the main strongholds for golden cats, well-managed logging concessions may also play an important role in the conservation of golden cats and other threatened species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African golden cat C aracal aurata is endemic to tropical Africa. It is one of the world's least-studied felids and is considered rare in most of its geographic range. The status of the African golden cat in the wild has never been rigorously assessed, but the species is increasingly threatened by habitat degradation, loss and fragmentation, and by unsustainable hunting., We describe the African golden cat and review its taxonomy, distribution, ecology, behaviour, threats and conservation status. The information presented here is based on the literature and on new data from the first two intensive field studies on the species (underway in Gabon and Uganda)., The golden cat is phenotypically variable. Within the two main colour morphs, golden/reddish-brown and grey, there is wide variation and intergradation. Both of these morphs occur throughout the species' range. Melanistic and chocolate-brown morphs also occur but are uncommon., Recent genetic analysis indicates that the golden cat is closely related to the caracal C aracal caracal, and it has, therefore, been changed from the genus P rofelis to C aracal., The golden cat is predominantly terrestrial and cathemeral. Its diet consists mainly of rodents and small ungulates., Field studies in Gabon and Uganda have established that golden cats can be locally common. They are prone to capture by wire snares, however, and are absent in forests hunted at commercial scales., Species-focused camera trap surveys are effective for collecting distribution, abundance, population structure, ecological and behavioural data on golden cats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]