The Leopard Cat is a fairly common small cat in Asia. It's about the size of a tall domestic cat and weighs between 3 and 7 kilograms (6.5 and 15.5 pounds).

Leopard cats are primarily nocturnal and hunt both on the ground and in the trees. They can also swim very well.

One of the Leopard Cat's most striking characteristics is its spotted coat, which may vary in color and markings.

This, together with the fact that the Leopard Cat is a wild cat and not easily tamed, has led breeders to cross it with the domestic cat to produce the Bengal housecat, which also has a spotted coat.

It thrives in a variety of habitats, from the dense tropical forests of Sumatra to the pine forests of Manchuria.

They can live in scrub, semidesert, secondary vegetation, and agricultural areas.

The Leopard cat is reported to feed on hares, rodents, reptiles, birds, and fish.The gestation period of the Leopard Cat is about 2 1/2 months.

Two or three young are born each time in a den, which may be a hollow tree, a small cave, or a hole beneath the roots of a fallen tree. Kittens open their eyes when they are about 10 days old and reach sexual maturity at 1 1/2 months.

SOCIAL SYSTEM: Solitary, nothing known.

The first documented cross between the Leopard cat and domestic cat in the US was recorded in 1963 but there are references to domestic and wild crosses in earlier literature.

Today's Bengal cat was first recognized in 1984 by The International Cat Association (TICA) and is at least 4 generations away from the Asian Leopard Cat.