The endangered Bornean bay cat, a cat species so rare and hard to find that researchers have periodically wondered whether it was actually extinct, was spotted, MSN reported.
Scientists from the Zoological Society of London and Imperial College London randomly placed camera traps in heavily logged areas of its namesake Bornean forests that caught the bay cat, giving hope to conservationists that animals can survive in such conditions.
"Conservationists used to assume that very few wild animals can live in logged forests, but we now know this land can be home for many endangered species," Robert Ewers of the SAFE tropical forest conservation project told UPI.
The Bornean marbled cat, which was photographed in 2003, has only been recorded on video a handful of times before, according to a press release. Very little is known about them because of their low population density and how reclusive they are.
Scientists estimate there are fewer than 2,500 of adult bay cats remaining in the wild, and that their population will decline by at least 20 percent in the next 12 years due to deforestation in Borneo, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported.
Four other rarely seen cat species also made appearances on the scientist's hidden cameras.
In the same area where the Bornean bay cats were found, scientists have spotted the Sunda clouded leopard, leopard cat, flat-headed cat and marbled cat.
"We were completely surprised to see so many bay cats at these sites in Borneo where natural forests have been so heavily logged for the timber trade," Ewer said in a statement.
Unlike other camera traps that are typically placed in strategic locations, these cameras were placed at random locations.
"We discovered that randomly placed cameras have a big influence on the species recorded," Oliver Wearn, a researcher at the Zoological Society of London, said in a statement. "This is something I was taught in school I remember doing a project on which plant species were most abundant on our playing field, and being taught to fling quadrats [a geometric tool used to define a study area] over my shoulder in a random direction before seeing what plants lay within it, rather than placing it somewhere that looked like a good place to put it the same principle applies here."
According to MSN, researchers praised the hidden cameras for their ability to "see" these bay cat and the other rarely seen cat species more frequently than humans ever will.
