Andean Mountain Cat

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Andean Cat[1]

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Felinae
Genus: Leopardus
Species: L. jacobitus
Binomial name
Leopardus jacobitus
(Cornalia, 1865)
Synonyms
  • Oreailurus jacobita

The Andean Mountain Cat (Leopardus jacobitus) is also known as the Andean Cat. Its habitat and appearance make it the small cat analogue of the Snow Leopard. While it is only about the size of a domestic cat, it appears larger because of its long tail and silvery-gray, striped and spotted long fur. The body length is about 60 cm (24 in), the tail length is 42 cm (17 in), the shoulder height is 36 cm (14 in) and the body weight is 5.5 kg (12 lbs). It is one of the least known and rarest of all felines; almost all that is known about it comes from a few observations in the wild and from skins. There are none in captivity. It is believed to live only in the high Andes mountains of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. It has been sighted at elevations of 5,100 meters, well above the tree line.

Since it lives only in the high mountains, human-inhabited valleys act as barriers, fragmenting the population, meaning that even low levels of poaching could be devastating. It is often killed in Chile and Bolivia because of local superstition.

Conservation International (CI) ecologist Jim Sanderson has been studying it. He sighted and photographed one in Chile, in 1998, near Chile's northern border with Peru. Later, in 2004, he located and radio-collared one in Bolivia. Lilian Villalba of the Andean Cat Alliance is conducting a major research program, including radio-telemetry studies, from 2001 to 2006 in the Khastor region of southern Bolivia.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wozencraft, W. C. (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 538. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ^ Cat Specialist Group (2002). Oreailurus jacobita. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is endangered

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