Two felid cousins responded in the past very differently to climate change

Southeast Asia is home to numerous felids, including the Asian golden cat and the bay cat. The two cat species are closely related sister species which split from each other 3.16 million years ago. Yet, their more recent history was quite different. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and their international partners could now show that, after a massive volcanic eruption about 73,000 years ago, the Asian golden cat survived only in Indochina, from wh