A digital infrared camera set up in the jungles of Uganda has caught three photographs of the African Golden Cat; one of the most elusive of all wild cats in the world. The cat is so rare that few researchers have ever seen it and it is though that only one other picture of the species exists – taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even Dr. Aronsen of Yale University (who set up the camera that took these pictures) saw his first and only wild African golden cat this summer.

Golden cats are medium-sized, compact and muscular felids, but the photographs have revealed that the individual in question actually has a dark coat! Dr. Aronsen explained that, despite its name, the cat’s coat varies over its lifetime; changing colour and even pattern (it can be spotted or not!) depending on age and location across the continent. Having set the camera up to take pictures of primates living the park, Dr. Aronsen is delighted to have caught the cat on film, but admits to being “disappointed that the cameras could not give me more data on [the cat's] colour”

I can’t even imagine the price of the cat insurance you’d have to take out on a cat you’d only see once in a lifetime!