The Rusty-Spotted Cat: the Smallest Cat in the World, Its Size and Facts

The rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus) is the smallest wild cat in the world. An adult weighs 0.9 to 1.6 kg (about 2 to 3.5 lb), less than half an ordinary house cat, and its body is just 35 to 48 cm (14 to 19 in) long. It lives only in India, Sri Lanka and the far west of Nepal, and the IUCN Red List has classed it as Near Threatened since 2016. Its closest rival for the title is the black-footed cat of southern Africa, which is only slightly heavier.

Rusty-spotted cat size: how small is it really?

Picture a cat you could hold in one hand. A grown rusty-spotted cat weighs about the same as a bag of sugar, and the long tail makes up a good part of its total length. The Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent, which keeps the species, compares it to a red squirrel.

Measurement	Rusty-spotted cat
Head and body	35 to 48 cm (14 to 19 in)
Tail	15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 in), about half the body length
Adult weight	0.9 to 1.6 kg (2 to 3.5 lb), against around 4 kg (9 lb) for an average house cat
Weight at birth	60 to 77 g (about 2 to 2.7 oz)
Litter size	usually one or two kittens

Sources differ a little at the top end. The IUCN Cat Specialist Group gives a weight of 1 to 2 kg, and the Felidae Conservation Fund 0.8 to 1.6 kg. Most field guides settle on 0.9 to 1.6 kg, and that is the range we use throughout this article.

Rusty-spotted cat kitten size

Newborn kittens weigh 60 to 77 grams, about the weight of a hen's egg. They are born with rows of black spots, and the rusty blotches of the adult coat only appear as they grow. A litter is usually one or two kittens, born after a pregnancy of 65 to 70 days in a den the mother prepares in a quiet, hidden spot. Most of what we know about rusty-spotted cat kittens comes from zoos, because hardly anyone has seen a wild litter. Curious how fast ordinary kittens grow? Read when cats stop growing.

Appearance

The rusty-spotted cat has a short, soft coat in greyish fawn with a reddish tinge. Along the back and flanks run rows of rust-brown spots and blotches, which give the species its name. The belly, chest and throat are white with dark spots and bars.

The face is striking for such a small animal. Four dark stripes run from above the eyes over the head towards the shoulders, and there are two dark streaks on each cheek. The eyes are large, the ears small and rounded, and the soles of the feet are black. The tail is thick and about half the length of the body.

From a distance it can look like a leopard cub, and that resemblance is a real problem. The Felidae Conservation Fund notes that people sometimes kill rusty-spotted cats because they mistake them for leopard cubs.

Behaviour and diet

The rusty-spotted cat is mainly nocturnal. During the day it rests in hollow logs, dense thickets, trees or rock crevices. In camera-trap studies almost all records are taken after dark, while zoo animals are sometimes briefly active in daylight.

• Hunting: it hunts mostly on the ground with quick, darting movements. It is an agile climber, but seems to use trees mainly to escape larger predators such as jackals, foxes and other cats.
• Diet: mainly rodents and birds, plus lizards, frogs and insects when the chance arises. In Gujarat, rodents were the main prey. It occasionally takes poultry, which brings it into conflict with farmers.
• Social life: it lives alone. In zoos, both males and females mark their territory by spraying urine.
• Breeding: a female is in oestrus for about five days, and mating is unusually brief. Researchers think this may limit the time the pair is exposed to predators.
• Lifespan: unknown in the wild. In zoos, rusty-spotted cats have lived into their teens. Many sources give 12 years, the Felidae Conservation Fund at least 16, and the Cat Specialist Group up to 18.

Habitat and range in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal

The Cat Specialist Group describes the rusty-spotted cat as "widespread but nowhere common". It lives in moist and dry deciduous forest, thorn forest, scrub, grassland and rocky hillsides, and it likes dense vegetation and rocks. It is probably absent from evergreen rainforest.

• India: records from much of the country, from Gujarat and Rajasthan to Maharashtra, the Western and Eastern Ghats and the Terai in the north. Known sites include Gir National Park, Tadoba-Andhari, Ranthambore and Sariska.
• Sri Lanka: both the dry lowlands and the wet zone. In 2016 it was camera-trapped for the first time in Horton Plains National Park, at 2,084 to 2,162 metres. Yala National Park is another protected site.
• Nepal: first photographed in Bardia National Park in March 2012, and in Shuklaphanta National Park in 2016, both close to the Indian border.

The cat also turns up near farmland and villages. Whether populations can survive long-term in cultivated land is still unclear. The Cat Specialist Group recognises three subspecies: one in India and Nepal and two in Sri Lanka.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List has listed the rusty-spotted cat as Near Threatened since its 2016 assessment, with a declining population. Sri Lanka's own national Red List classes it as Endangered. Nobody knows how many there are. Mongabay India quoted Cat Specialist Group member Shomita Mukherjee in 2023 saying there is no baseline for the species and more research is needed.

The main threats, according to the Cat Specialist Group:

• Loss of deciduous forest to farming, irrigation schemes, towns, industry, mining and solar parks.
• Persecution after it takes poultry, and hunting for food or fur.
• Being mistaken for a leopard cub and killed.
• Fewer prey animals through overhunting, and possible hybridisation with domestic cats.

On the protection side, the Indian population is on CITES Appendix I, the strictest level of the international wildlife trade convention. The populations of Sri Lanka and Nepal are on Appendix II. Hunting and trade are prohibited in all three countries, although the Cat Specialist Group notes that domestic trade in Sri Lanka is not controlled.

Zoos help as a backup population. In 2010 there were 45 Sri Lankan rusty-spotted cats in seven European zoos and 11 at Colombo Zoo. In the UK, Exmoor Zoo in Devon has bred them as part of the European programme, and the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent has announced a purpose-built conservation centre for the species within an internationally coordinated breeding programme. Breeding them is hard work. The Cat Specialist Group lists poor survival in captivity as one of the problems for the species.

Can you keep a rusty-spotted cat as a pet?

No. The rusty-spotted cat is a wild, protected species and has never been domesticated. Hunting and trade are banned in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and the Indian population is on CITES Appendix I, which rules out commercial international trade. The only legal rusty-spotted cats outside their range live in zoos that take part in breeding programmes.

Even leaving the law aside, it would be a miserable life for the cat. It is active at night, marks its territory with urine, and is difficult to keep alive even for specialist keepers. If you see a "rusty-spotted kitten" for sale online, it is either a spotted domestic kitten or an illegally traded wild animal. Report the second to the police or a wildlife crime unit.

Want a small cat in your home? Then look at the smallest domestic breeds further down this page. They are healthy pets that happen to be small.

Rusty-spotted cat vs black-footed cat: which is the smallest?

The black-footed cat (Felis nigripes) of southern Africa is the other contender for the title of smallest cat in the world. It lives in the dry grasslands and semi-deserts of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and owes its name to its black foot pads.

	Rusty-spotted cat	Black-footed cat
Head and body	35 to 48 cm	35 to 52 cm
Weight	0.9 to 1.6 kg (males on average 1.5 to 1.6 kg)	males on average 1.6 to 2.1 kg, females lighter
Range	India, Sri Lanka, Nepal	South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe
Habitat	deciduous forest, scrub, grassland, rocks	dry grassland and semi-desert
IUCN status	Near Threatened (since 2016)	Vulnerable (since 2002)
CITES	Appendix I (India), II (elsewhere)	Appendix I

The difference is small and comes down to averages. A large rusty-spotted cat and a small black-footed female weigh about the same. Guinness World Records names the rusty-spotted cat as the smallest wild cat species and notes that the black-footed cat is often wrongly given that title in the media. The black-footed cat holds a different record. BBC Wildlife reports that about 60 per cent of its hunts succeed, which makes it the most successful hunter of all cats.

Smallest domestic cats and breeds

Many people searching for the smallest cat in the world mean a house cat. That gives two more answers.

The smallest domestic cat on record

According to Guinness World Records, the smallest cat ever was Tinker Toy, a blue point Himalayan-Persian from Taylorville, Illinois. Fully grown, he stood 7 cm (2.75 in) tall and was 19 cm (7.5 in) long. He died in 1997. In 2013 Guinness recognised Lilieput, a Munchkin from California, as the shortest living cat at 13.34 cm (5.25 in) to the shoulder. The famous photo of "Mr. Peebles" in a glass is, according to fact-checking site Snopes, an edited image from a 2006 photo contest.

Cats this small almost always have a growth disorder. That is a medical problem, and nothing to aim for.

The smallest cat breeds

Breed	Female	Male	Note
Singapura	1.8 to 2.3 kg (4 to 5 lb)	2.7 to 3.2 kg (6 to 7 lb)	smallest recognised breed (CFA)
Munchkin	1.8 to 3.6 kg (4 to 8 lb)	2.7 to 4.1 kg (6 to 9 lb)	short legs from dwarfism, recognised by TICA only
Cornish Rex	2.3 to 3.2 kg (5 to 7 lb)	2.7 to 4.1 kg (6 to 9 lb)	slim, curly coat, feels the cold
Devon Rex	2.7 to 4.1 kg (6 to 9 lb), males slightly heavier		large ears, thin curly coat
American Curl	2.3 to 3.6 kg (5 to 8 lb)	3.2 to 4.5 kg (7 to 10 lb)	backward-curled ears

Even the smallest breed is heavier than a rusty-spotted cat. A Singapura female of 2 kg is a little heavier than the largest rusty-spotted cats, and a Singapura male is twice as heavy. The Siamese often appears on lists of small cats too, though the breed standard calls it medium-sized and finely built. At the other end of the scale, a large Maine Coon male weighs as much as four or five rusty-spotted cats.

A word of caution about the Munchkin and so-called "teacup" cats. The Munchkin's short legs come from chondrodysplasia, an inherited growth disorder of cartilage and bone. The UK animal welfare charity UFAW says Munchkins are probably at higher risk of painful osteoarthritis and advises against breeding them, and the European federation FIFe and the British GCCF do not recognise the breed. "Teacup" or "mini" cats are not a breed at all. Vets quoted by PetMD warn that they are bred from undersized parents and often have problems with breathing, teeth, bones and keeping warm. Never buy a kitten because the seller promises it will "stay small", and if your own kitten lags far behind its littermates, ask your vet to check it.

All domestic cats, small or large, descend from the African wildcat, a different branch of the cat family from the rusty-spotted cat. Read more in the history of the domestic cat.

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