Current data suggest that the Marbled Cat is forest dependent, primarily associated with moist and mixed deciduous-evergreen tropical forest (Nowell and Jackson 1996), and may prefer hill forest (Duckworth et al. 1999, Holden 2001, Grassman et al. 2005). The increasing use of camera traps throughout its range is revealing detections from disturbed areas (e.g. Mohamed et al. 2009, Mathai et al. 2010), including recently logged forest (e.g. Ross et al. 2010), but surveys of oil palm plantations in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo have not detected marbled cats within the plantations (Ross et al. 2010, Yue et al. 2015). Grassman and Tewes (2002) reported a pair of adult Marbled Cats in a salt lick in Thailand's Phu Khieu National Park.

The Marbled Cat has never been intensively studied, but Grassman et al. (2005) report a preliminary home range estimate of 5.3 km² for an adult female who was radio-collared and tracked for one month in Thailand's Phu Khieu National Park. There is no detailed information regarding Marbled Cat diet, but it probably preys primarily on rodents, including squirrels (Nowell and Jackson 1996), and birds.

The Marbled Cat appears to be primarily diurnal (Ross et al. 2010, Lynam et al. 2013).

The Marbled Cat is found from the Himalayan foothills in Nepal eastwards into southwest China, southwards throughout mainland Southeast Asia and on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. There are many recent records from protected and non-protected areas throughout its range - examples include Borneo: Danum Valley Conservation Area and surrounding production forest, Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Crocker Range National Park, Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, Gomantong Forest Reserve, and Tawau Hills National Park (Hearn, Ross and Macdonald unpubl. data), Maliau Basin Conservation Area (Brodie and Giordano 2011), Deramakot Forest Reserve (Mohamed et al. 2009), Sabangau catchment (including Sebangau National Park) (Cheyne and Macdonald 2010), Bawan Forest Complex, Kutai National Park, Murung Raya Forest Complex, Sungai Wain Protection Forest (Cheyne et al. in prep.), Upper Baram region of Sarawak (Mathai et al. 2010), Sumatra: Gunung Leuser National Park (Pusparini et al. 2014), Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (Wibisono and McCarthy 2010), Peninsular Malaysia: Endau Rompin National Park (Gumal et al. 2014), Myanmar: Taninthary Nature Reserve (Than Zaw et al. 2014), Thailand: Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary (Riggio and Lynam unpublished data), Cambodia: Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary (Gray et al. 2014), Preah Roka Forest (Suzuki et al. 2015), north-east India: Namdapha Tiger Reserve (Datta et al. 2008a,b; F. Ahmed et al. unpubl. data), Pakke Tiger Reserve (Lyngdoh et al. 2011), Eaglenest WLS (Velho 2013, P. Choudhary et al. unpubl. data) in Arunachal Pradesh, Joypur-Dehing area in eastern Assam (K. Kakati unpubl. data), Manas Tiger Reserve in western Assam (Borah et al. 2013) Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mizoram (Lalthanpuia et al. 2012, P. Singh unpubl. data) and sighting records /reports from the Mishmi Hills (Raj Kamal Phukan pers. comm.) and South Garo Hills, Meghalaya (Samrakshan Trust 2007), Bhutan: Royal Manas National Park (Tempa et al. 2013), Bangladesh: Moulvibazar district (Khan 2015).

The current assessment map shows range within existing forest cover (Hansen et al. 2013, Miettinen et al. 2011) but also includes small fragmented areas where Marbled Cats are known to still exist.   

The Marbled Cat is listed on CITES Appendix I and is protected by national legislation across most of its range. Hunting is prohibited in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China (Yunnan only), India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand. Hunting regulations are in place in Lao PDR and Singapore (Nowell and Jackson 1996). It occurs in many protected areas, but levels of active protection for wildlife vary widely between countries and also between protected areas within countries; it also occurs in unprotected places. However, to better understand its conservation needs and to realize a better assessment in the future, further research is needed into Marbled Cat ecology, distribution and status. More information is especially required regarding the population density, the effects that habitat degradation has on population density and distribution, the extent of hunting and the frequency at which Marbled Cats appear in illegal trade.