Pantanal Cat

Pantanal Cat[1]
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Leopardus
Species: L. braccatus
Binomial name
Leopardus braccatus
Cope, 1889
crude Leopardus braccatus range map

The Pantanal Cat (Leopardus braccatus) is a small feline of far south-eastern and central Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina and Uruguay. It is named after the Pantanal wetlands in central South America, but mainly occurs in grassland, shrubland, savannas and deciduous forests.[2] It has traditionally been treated as a subspecies of the larger Colocolo, but was split primarily based on differences in pelage colour/pattern and cranial measurements.[2] This split is not supported by genetic work,[3][4] leading some authorities to maintain that it is a subspecies of the Colocolo.[5][6] Hybrids between the Pantanal Cat and Oncilla are known from Brazil.[3]

Subspecies

When recognized as a species separate from the Colocolo, there are two subspecies of the Pantanal Cat:[1]

L. b. braccatus is almost entirely rusty-brown with faint dark brown spots on the flanks, a whitish throat, two dark lines on each cheek, black stripes on the legs and chest, and black feet and tail-tip. L. b. munoai is quite similar, but paler, more yellowish, its flank spots are browner and more distinct, the feet are only black on the soles, and the distal part of the tail has several discontinuous rings but only a narrow black tip.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wozencraft, W. Christopher (16 November 2005). "Order Carnivora (pp. 532-628)". In Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). pp. 537-538. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3. 
  2. ^ a b c Garcia-Perea, R. (1994). The pampas cat group (Genus Lynchailurus Severertzov 1858) (Carnivora: Felidae), A systematic and biogeographic review. American Museum Novitates 3096: 1-35.
  3. ^ a b Johnson, Slattery, Erizirik, Kim, Raymond, Bonacic, Cambre, Crawshaw, Nunes, Seuánez, Moreira, Seymour, Simon, Swanson, & O'Brien (1999). Disparate phylogeographic patterns of molecular genetic variation in four closely related South American small cat species. Molecular Ecology 8: S79–94
  4. ^ Macdonald, D., & Loveridge, A., eds. (2010). The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-923445-5
  5. ^ a b c Sunquist, M. E., & Sunquist, F. C. (2009). Colocolo (Leopardus colocolo). Pp. 146 in: Wildons, D. E., & Mittermeier, R. A. eds. (2009). Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Vol. 1. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1
  6. ^ Pereira, J., Lucherini, M., de Oliveira, T., Eizirik, E., Acosta, G., Leite-Pitman, R. (2008). "Leopardus colocolo". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/15309. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 

External links