A small water-associated cat with a narrow head and a flattened forehead.
It has a long narrow head with a flat forehead and small, low-set rounded ears. Its toes are webbed, and its reddish-brown fur is pale underneath.
Camera surveys in peat-swamp forest on Sumatra’s Kampar Peninsula recorded 11 flat-headed cats during 2015–2019. The survey covered about 1,300 square kilometres and produced the first records of the species from this peninsula.
Ten of the 11 records were made between 18:30 and 06:00; the only daylight record was at 16:21. The cats appeared at elevations of 1–7 metres above sea level, and every record was close to water. Sites included riparian and mixed peat-swamp forest, some of it degraded where selective logging had removed large trees.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The authors report evidence that flat-headed cats persist in a privately managed Ecosystem Restoration Concession landscape where forest protection is underway. They call for further study of the species’ ecology and habitat to inform conservation planning for the peninsula.