[2] Felis badia was the scientific name proposed by John Edward Gray in 1874, who first described a bay cat skin and skull collected by Alfred Russel Wallace in 1856 in Sarawak.

The tail is elongated and tapering at the end, with a white central streak occupying the rear half of the lower side, gradually becoming wider and of a purer white towards the tip, which has a small black spot at its upper end.

[6] In the 19th century, only seven bay cat skins surfaced, and the first live female caught in 1992 on the Sarawak–Indonesian border was brought to the Sarawak Museum on the verge of death.

[6] In the mid-1990s, the most reliable sightings have been reported in Gunung Palung National Park and the upper Kapuas River in West Kalimantan.

[11] In central Sarawak, only one individual was recorded in more than a year of camera trapping between August 2010 and November 2011 in an area that was regenerating from logging.

[15] Most records of the bay cat obtained in Sarawak between 2003 and 2018 were located in lowland riverine and montane forests below 700 m (2,300 ft); its occurrence increased at a distance of 10 km (6.2 mi) away from roads.

[16] In Sabah, a camera trapping survey from July 2008 to January 2009 in the northwestern part of Deramakot Forest Reserve yielded one photo of a male bay cat in an area of about 112 km2 (43 sq mi) in a total survey effort of 1916 camera trap nights.

[18] A repeated survey in Kalabakan Forest Reserve in 2018 yielded records in just eight of 74 locations during more than 7,200 camera trap days.

[22] In Central Kalimantan, a single bay cat was recorded in a mosaic of heath and peat swamp forest in the Rungan River catchment area during surveys between 2016 and 2018.

[16] In Sarawak, a bay cat was allegedly observed on a branch 1 m (3 ft 3 in) from the ground close to the river during a night hunting expedition.

Habitat loss due to commercial logging and conversion to oil palm plantations pose the greatest threat to the bay cat.