Felis chaus kelaarti is a subspecies of the jungle cat. When the Ceylonese naturalist Edward Frederick Kelaart described the first Felis chaus skin from northern Sri Lanka in 1852, he emphasised its close resemblance to a "swamp lynx". In the 1930s, Pocock reviewed the Natural History Museum's jungle cat skins and skulls from British India and adjacent countries. Based mainly on differences in fur length and colour he subordinated the specimens from Sri Lanka and southern India under Felis chaus kelaarti.