Gray cat
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Gray cat in the Xining Zoo |
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| Felis offers | ||||||||||||
| Milne Edwards , 1892 |
The gray cat or goby cat ( Felis habeni ) is a Central Asian cat species. In the past it was also classified as a subspecies Felis silvestris habeni of the wild cat . The sometimes used name steppe cat can lead to confusion with the Asian wildcat of the same name and should therefore be avoided. The gray cat is a rare species that little is known about. The World Conservation Union ( IUCN ) lists them as endangered ( vulnerable ). It is listed in Appendix B of the Washington Convention on Endangered Species .
features
The gray cat grows to 80 cm long with a 35 cm long tail. As an adult, it weighs 6.5 to 9 kilograms. The underside of the abdomen is lighter, the middle of the back a little darker. There is a pale red-brown area of fur under the ears. The tail is marked with a few rings and ends in a dark point. The body is very compact, the legs are relatively short, the undersides of the paws are very hairy.
Distribution, existence and habitat
The distribution area of the gray cat is on the eastern edge of the Tibetan high plateau in western China , where it occurs in eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan . The gray cat is endemic to China, which means that it only occurs here. Their habitat includes montane mountain forests, alpine bushland and meadows. The species is threatened by poaching, poisons (to control rodents) and habitat changes.
Way of life
Very little is known about the way of life of this cat. The evaluation of 32 fecal samples indicate that rodents represent the largest part of the prey. They also eat pika and hunt birds, including pheasants. It is assumed that the gray cat is crepuscular and nocturnal and spends the day in its den.
Discovery story
Gray cat pelts were first collected in 1889 by members of the French expedition that traveled to Central Asia under the leadership of Henri Philippe Marie d'Orléans and Gabriel Bonvalot . The skins were found in markets in the Chinese province of Sichuan . The gray cat was scientifically described on the basis of these fur in 1892. The specimen copies are now in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris . She received the scientific name Felishabeni in honor of the French missionary Félix Biet († 1901).
In 2007, only six living animals were known to exist in Chinese zoological gardens worldwide, as well as twenty furs and a few skulls that are kept in museums. The first specimen kept in the zoo was shown at the Beijing Zoo from 1974 to 1978. In the summer of 2007, some photos of animals in their natural environment were taken for the first time in the Tibetan plateau with the help of "camera traps".
Systematics
The gray cat was first described in 1892 by the French zoologist Henri Milne Edwards . The comparison of mitochondrial DNA shows that Felis bidi basal to Felis silvestris ( sensu lato ); however, a comparison of microsatellites shows that it is the sister group of the Asiatic wildcat ( Felis lybica ornata ). The gray cat may have originated from hybridization during the last glacial period , when the range of the Asiatic wildcat was restricted to a very small area in Central Asia. The gray cat differs morphologically from the Asiatic wildcat, with which it is said to be sympatric in parts of its range .
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 gray cat; IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group in English
- Felis bieti in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Cat Specialist Group, 2002. Retrieved on 11 May, 2006.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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. Pp. 26-28.
- ^ Mel E. Sunquist & Fiona C. Sunquist: Family Felidae (Cats). P. 166 in Don E. Wilson , Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World - Volume 1 Carnivores. Lynx Editions, 2009, ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1
- ↑ Driscoll, CA, et al .: The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication . In: Science . 317, No. 5837, June 28, 2007, pp. 519-523. doi : 10.1126 / science.1139518 .
- ↑ Li He, Rosa García-Perea, Ming Li and Fuwen Wei: Distribution and conservation status of the endemic Chinese mountain cat Felishaben . Oryx (2004) 38: 55-61 Cambridge University Press. 2004
- ^ DE Wilson and DM Reeder: Mammal Species of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8018-8221-4
- ^ Sunquist, p. 59
- ^ Sunquist, p. 58
- ^ Sunquist, p. 59
- ↑ Science 317, p. 1151, August 31, 2007 (with photo) pdf