More fascinating facts about small wild cats! Sit back and enjoy because, it turns out there are at least 40 species well-known to science and probably dozens more unknown, with many subspecies evolving into new species all the time! That’s what the latest genetic studies show.
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Hi, I’m Itzl!
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group (Itzl Alert Network, or IAN) is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by heat, blizzards, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other things that could keep us off DKos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! Send us a message if you want to publish a diary or have a cause to share. Head group admins FLSNMom at www.dailykos.com/… or Art Ah Zen at www.dailykos.com/…
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To get a good handle on the amazing diversity of wild cats on our beautiful planet, scroll down this link and see the color-coded Family Tree of the Felinae, the Small Cat Sub-Family of the broader Cat Family Felidae, comprising all the modern (surviving) Lineages under Taxonomy.
We profiled the bigger members of the Ocelot Lineage, the Ocelot and Margay in our first Cat Diary.
And in our last diary we covered 3 smaller members of the OL, the Oncilla, Southern Tigrina, and Geoffroy's Cat and how their Allopatric Speciation means they’re closely related but different species in different geographic niches. And how the Southern Tiger or Tigrina can still Introgressively backbreed with Geoffroy’s Cat, but they are indeed genetically distinct — because it turns out Geoffroy’s Cat is genetically even closer to its Chilean neighbor, the Kodkod or Guigna (but still a different species with a different look and adaptations). All these small Latin American cats are in the genus Leopardus. Quite distinct from the Old World Leopard, genus Panthera.
Which brings us to the curious little Kodkod. Quidquid? (Whatever?) - no, we kid you not: The Kodkod or Leopardus Guigna, is the smallest of its Latin American Subfamily, the Ocelot Lineage, and perhaps the ‘coolest’ - because it’s found in the Valdivian Temperate Rain Forest of Chile's southern coast, similar to our Olympic Rain Forest in OR and WA. It’s very closely related to the neighboring Geoffroy's Cat of Argentina.
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Here are its other relatives; its closest neighbor besides Geoffroy's Cat is probably the handsome Andean Mountain Cat, Leopardus Jacobita - the remarkably adaptive mountain cat of the Cordilleras:
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And here's the equally well-adapted Pampas Cat, Leopardus Colocola of the lowlands:
After extensive Peripatry, (essentially genetic changes brought on by migration and adaptation to new niches), in all those different habitats, the consensus is there are probably at least 5 separate Species of Pampas Cats, not Subspecies as previously thought, based on the latest genetic analysis of the varieties of Leopardus Colocola, the Type Species:
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So besides the Colocola, these are tentatively described as the following Species:
The Southern or Argentine Pampas Cat, Leopardus Pajeros which lives in the Pampas (grassy plains).
Here’s a video with sound: www.instagram.com/…
This one’s no sound, the biologists were filming something else and caught it by accident:
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The Pantanal Cat, Leopardus Braccatus:
www.youtube.com/…
Here’s a video with just a species ID of the Allopatric complex of the Ocelot Family Lineage, including most of the small guys. It starts with the Pantanal Cat, native to the vast swampy areas in Southern Brazil and Paraguay:
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And Leopardus Garleppi, the xerophylic Garlepp's Cat of the Peruvian and Chilean deserts, occupying the same niche as the Sand Cat of the Old World:
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And finally Leopardus Fasciatus, the Uruguayan Pantanal Cat (also described as Leopardus Munoai but regrouped as Fasciatus), possibly even more rare than the Andean Cat:
Get ready for more remarkable small cats next time!
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