Pipe cat
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Pipe cat Felis chaus |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Felis chaus | ||||||||||||
| Güldenstädt , 1776 |
The pipe cat ( Felis chaus ) is also known as the swamp curse and is a relatively long-legged and short-tailed cat that is at home in Asian wetlands .
In 2008 the IUCN classified cane cats as Low Endangered , but in some countries the population trend is declining worryingly.
features
Cane cats have beige fur with no clear signs or markings. Only the approximately 30 cm long tail is ringed black. The head-torso length is about 70 cm. At the end of the ears there are black tufts reminiscent of a lynx ; hence the name swamp curse comes from .
The body size of tube cats in the west and east of their range varies considerably. Research showed that male cane cats from Israel weighed an average of 10 ± 1.4 kg and females 7 ± 1.73 kg. Male cane cats native to India weighed 5.75 ± 1.41 kg and females 4 ± 1.97 kg.
The winter fur of reed cats is not very dense, and they appear to be sensitive to temperatures below freezing. From Pakistan are melanistic jungle cats known.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area of reed cats extends mainly over the Orient , from the Delta of the Nile in Egypt , to West and Central Asia , but also in South Asia , Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia . In India they are the most common small cats . In the south-west of Asia they are native to Israel , in the south of Lebanon , in the north-west of Jordan , in the west of Syria to Turkey and the west of Iraq . In Central Asia they live in the Caucasus up to an altitude of 1,000 m, occur around the Caspian Sea , the Aral Sea and associated river valleys, and in Iran as far as Pakistan . In the foothills of the Himalayas they live up to an altitude of 2,400 m. In Southeast Asia they are widespread as far as southern China , but do not occur on the Malay Peninsula south of the Kra isthmus . Little is known about their distribution in Indochina , especially Myanmar . Cats seem to be very rare there, except in northeast Cambodia , which is attributed to the fact that they are caught in randomly placed traps and snares, especially in Laos and Thailand .
The extreme south of Russia appears to be the northern limit of range for cane cats. The average temperature there in January is 2 ° C. On some days it is significantly colder and light snowfall is possible. In this region, many cane cats starve and freeze to death when it is unusually cold and it snows for a long time.
Reed cats are considered to be very adaptable and can be found in a variety of different habitats. They live in dense reeds , in impenetrable thorny bushes, in dense, swampy forest near lakes and rivers. But they have also been spotted near coastlines, fish ponds , reservoirs and irrigation systems . In Transcaucasia and Tajikistan , they have been observed in mountainous regions, where they are mostly found in densely vegetated river valleys. In the Indian Keoladeo National Park , they have been observed in moist swampy areas, but also in dry grasslands. In the Nepalese Chitwan National Park they prefer to live in the grasslands and in the riparian forest near rivers - a habitat that is also home to fish cats .
Subspecies and their distribution
When Johann Anton Güldenstädt traveled to southern Russia from 1768 to 1775 on behalf of Catherine II , he was the first naturalist to see a kirmyschak in the Caucasus . In his 15-page first Latin description from 1776, he named the animal Chaus - a name that subsequent scientists retained for the cat, who described further subspecies between 1830 and 1969. Today the Trinom Felis chaus still describes the subspecies of the cane cat native to West Asia.
The subspecies recognized by the specialist group of the international environmental protection association IUCN (SSC Cat Specialist Specialist Group) are:
- Felis chaus chaus Güldenstädt, 1776, occurs in western Asia ( Anatolia , Levant , Iraq , Iran , western Afghanistan) in the west of the Aralo-Caspian lowlands , on the banks of Amudarja and Syrdarja and in the Egyptian Nile valley.
- Felis chaus affinis ( Gray , 1830), lives on the Indian subcontinent from eastern Afghanistan to south and north-east India and Sri Lanka .
- Felis chaus fulvidina ( Thomas , 1929), occurs in mainland Southeast Asia ( Thailand , Myanmar , Laos , Cambodia and Vietnam ) and in southern China.
Way of life
Cane cats are loners who are mainly active in the twilight. They hunt early in the morning and in the evening until after dark. They usually rest during the day, but have also been seen hunting. They are not afraid of water and are excellent at swimming.
Prey and hunting
Reed cats feed primarily on prey that weigh less than a kilogram. Mainly remains of rodents and other small mammals were found in the feces and stomach contents. According to a study in the Indian Sariska Tiger Reserve , reed cats catch and eat an estimated 3–5 rodents a day. In addition, are birds an important part of their diet. Especially during the winter months when many water birds on rivers and in wetlands gather birds represent a substantial part represents their prey spectrum. On the west coast of the Caspian Sea to jungle cats of feed Ostschermäusen , hares , ground squirrels , shrews , piglets and coypu , water birds , their chicks and eggs, turtles , snakes , lizards and fish .
Vegetable food
But they also eat fruit. According to a study carried out in southern Uzbekistan , the fruits of the narrow-leaved olive willow make up up to 17 percent of their diet in winter.
Reproduction
After a gestation period of 63 to 66 days, the pipe cat gives birth to three to four young. The birth weight of wild reed cats has not yet been well studied. According to an examination, four two-day-old cane cats weighed only 43 to 55 grams. Cane cats born in captivity are significantly heavier at birth and weigh between 103 and 161 grams. They open their eyes between the ages of 10 and 13 and are suckled during the first three months of life. They consume solid food from around the age of 50. At eight to nine months of age, they are independent of the parent animal. But they are not fully grown at the time. There is very different information about the age at which they become fertile. In captive females, sexual maturity occurs as early as eleven months, and in the wild probably much later. The oldest reed cat living in captivity was nine years and 10 months old.
threat
Cane cats survive well in agricultural landscapes and man-made wetlands. Nonetheless, the destruction of natural wetlands, especially in arid regions, poses a threat as they are more common in natural wetlands. In many regions, populations have decreased because they are trapped or poisoned near populated areas.
Changes in the habitat have a negative impact on the population of cane cats. Extensive deforestation in Sri Lanka in the 1970s led to the fact that reed cats specialized in domestic fowl and goats for lack of natural prey. As a result, pipe cats were hunted. Individual goat farmers killed up to twelve cane cats a month. The cane cat fur trade is another factor that contributed and continues to contribute to intensive hunting. In 1979 the Indian government banned the export of the skins. At the time of the ban, Indian traders had 306,343 cane cat skins in stock.
natural reserve
Felis chaus is listed in Appendix II of the Washington Convention on the Protection of Species . Hunting Felis chaus is prohibited in India . In most of the countries in the distribution area, however , Felis chaus is not under nature protection outside of protected areas. Felis chaus has been a nature reserve in Afghanistan since 2009 and is neither hunted nor traded there.
Crossbreed with domestic cats
The pipe cat and house cat can be crossed. The Chausie breed of cats was bred from such hybrids.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Johann Anton Güldenstadt: Travels through Russia and in the Caucasus Mountains . Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 1787 ( full text in the Google book search).
- ↑ a b Duckworth, JW, Steinmetz, R., Sanderson, J., Mukherjee, S. (2008) Felis chaus . In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4.
- ↑ a b Mukherjee, S., Groves, C. (2007) Geographic variation in jungle cat (Felis chaus Schreber, 1777) (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) body size: is competition responsible? ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 276 kB) Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 92: 163–172
- ↑ a b c d e f g Sunquist, M., Sunquist, F. (2002) Wild cats of the World . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-77999-8 . Pages 60-66
- ↑ a b Kitchener AC, Breitenmoser-Würsten Ch., Eizirik E., Gentry A., Werdelin L., Wilting A., Yamaguchi N., Abramov AV, Christiansen P., Driscoll C., Duckworth JW, Johnson W., Luo S.-J., Meijaard E., O'Donoghue P., Sanderson J., Seymour K., Bruford M., Groves C., Hoffmann M., Nowell K., Timmons Z. & Tobe S. 2017. A revised taxonomy of the Felidae. The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group. Cat News Special Issue 11, 80 pp.
- ↑ a b Nowell, K., Jackson, P. (1996) Jungle cat Felis chaus In: Wild Cats: status survey and conservation action plan. IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland.
- ↑ a b Duckworth, JW, Poole, CM, Tizard, RJ, Walston, JL, Timmins, RJ (2005) The Jungle Cat Felis chaus in Indochina: A threatened population of a widespread and adaptable species. Biodiversity and Conservation 14: 1263-1280
- ↑ a b c Heptner, VG, Sludskii, AA, Komarov, A., Komorov, N. (1992) Mammals of the Soviet Union: Carnivora . Volume 2 of Mammals of the Soviet Union: Hyaenas and Cats. Brill. ISBN 90-04-08876-8 , 9789004088764
- ↑ Güldenstädt, JA (1776) Chaus - Animal feli adfine descriptum . Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae, Volume 20, St. Petersburg 1776. pp. 483
- ↑ Sanderson, J. (2009) A Matter of Very Little Moment? The mystery of who first described the jungle cat . Feline Conservation Federation Volume 53, Issue 1 (January / February 2009): 12-18
- ↑ Mukherjee, S., Goyal, SP, Johnsingh, AJT, Pitman, MRPL (2004) The importance of rodents in the diet of jungle cat (Felis chaus), caracal (Caracal caracal) and golden jackal (Canis aureus) in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, India (PDF; 116 kB). Journal of Zoology (London) 262: 405-411
- ↑ Description of the cat breed Chausie (TICA) (English) ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Mel Sunquist and Fiona Sunquist: Wild Cats of the World . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2002, ISBN 0-226-77999-8
Web links
- Species profile pipe cat; IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group in English
- Felis chaus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Cat Specialist Group, 2002. Retrieved on 5 May, 2006.
- World of cats: pipe cat (Felis chaus)