[2] Leopard cat subspecies differ widely in fur colour, tail length, skull shape and size of carnassials.

Its small head is marked with two prominent dark stripes and a short and narrow white muzzle.

In northern China and Siberia, they weigh up to 7.1 kg (16 lb), and have head-body lengths of up to 75 cm (30 in); generally, they put on weight before winter and become thinner until spring.

[citation needed] Felis bengalensis was the scientific name proposed by Robert Kerr in 1792 for a leopard cat from Bengal.

[6] In the subsequent decades, 20 more leopard cat specimens were described and named, including:[7] In 1939, Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated them to the genus Prionailurus.

The collection of the Natural History Museum, London comprised several skulls and large numbers of skins of leopard cats from various regions.

His description of leopard cats from the areas of Gilgit and Karachi under the trinomen Prionailurus bengalensis trevelyani is based on seven skins that had longer, paler and more greyish fur than those from the Himalayas.

They emphasized the differences of skins and skulls at their disposal and the ones originating in Southeast Asia, and coined the term Amur forest cat, which they regarded as a distinct species.

Southern lineage 1, comprising Southeast Asian populations, showed higher genetic diversity.

Its range extends from the Amur region in the Russian Far East over the Korean Peninsula, China, Indochina, the Indian Subcontinent to northern Pakistan.

It lives in tropical evergreen rainforests and plantations at sea level, in subtropical deciduous and coniferous forests in the foothills of the Himalayas at elevations above 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

[5] It is able to tolerate human-modified landscapes with vegetation cover to some degree, and inhabits agriculturally used areas such as oil palm and sugar cane plantations.

[5][23] In 2009, a leopard cat was recorded by a camera trap in Nepal's Makalu-Barun National Park at an elevation of 3,254 m (10,676 ft).

[25] In the northeast of its range it lives close to rivers, valleys and in ravine forests, but avoids areas with more than 10 cm (3.9 in) of snowfall.

[27] In Afghanistan, it was reported in the 1970s from Jalalkot and Norgul in the Kunar Valley, and the Waygul forest of Dare Pech.

Some are active during the day, but most hunt at night, preferring to stalk murids, tree shrews and hares.

Both sexes scent mark their territory by spraying urine, leaving faeces in exposed locations, head rubbing, and scratching.

[5] Leopard cats are carnivorous, feeding on a variety of small prey including mammals, lizards, amphibians, birds and insects.

Unlike many other small cats, they do not "play" with their food, maintaining a tight grip with their claws until the animal is dead.

[33] Although commercial trade is much reduced, the leopard cat continues to be hunted throughout most of its range for fur, food, and for sale as a pet.

[35] It is threatened by habitat loss, including from logging in the 1950s and 1960s, and a growing deer population which removes undergrowth that the Tsushima cat hunts for rodents in.