The smallest feline species on the earth is the rusty-spotted cat (prionailurus rubiginosus) and no, you can’t have one.
Recently, the BBC came out with a preview of its latest episode, Big Cats. The episode centers around an almost-adult, rusty-spotted cat that lives in Sri Lanka.
The cat comes from a wild species of felines living in in the forests of Sri Lanka and much of India, with sporadic sightings in Terai and Nepal.
At just 13 to 18 inches in body length, the cat can quite easily fit into human palms. AWE!
And while the tiny cats are predominately nocturnal, they will briefly come out in the daylight. But their activity during the day is limited as rusty-spotted cats hide in trees and caves as to avoid larger predators.
Their main food sources are rodents and birds but won’t shy away from consuming lizards, frogs, and insects.
You can credit the rusty-spotted cat’s adorableness to its size and coat — the species often described as a smaller version of leopard.
It should be noted the cat is currently on the list of near threatened species with the main cause being its natural habitat, the deciduous forests, are on the decline due to cultivation and natural loss.
