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| Marbled Cat - Pardofelis marmorata | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:06 PM (3,477 Views) | |
| Taipan | Jan 7 2012, 08:06 PM Post #1 |
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Marbled Cat - Pardofelis marmorata![]() Shoulder Height:11 in. (28 cm) Head and Body Length:18-24 in. (45-61 cm) Tail Length:14-22 in. (35-55 cm) Weight:4-13 lb. (2-6 kg) Range and Habitat The marbled cat inhabits the forests of southeast Asia, from northern India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo. ![]() Physical Appearance These small cats are very similar in appearance to the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). They have thick soft fur, with a clouded leopard pattern: golden background with large spots that fade off to one side. They have a lighter colored underside, and black ears with one large white spot in the middle of the back of each ear, which all cats have. It serves to signal to other felines the cat's mood; the spots are clearly present when the ears are laid backward so it may signal aggression. Another feature they have in common with the clouded leopard is that they have very long canine teeth. The marbled cat's face looks more similar to the smaller felids than to the pantherines, though it is closely related to the patherine cats. Diet They are thought to have primarily arboreal feeding habits, eating tree squirrels, fruit bats, birds, reptiles, frogs, and insects. This is all speculation, however, and is supported by the structure of the cat's body: their feet are adapted to tree climbing, their long, thick tail used for balance, and short legs. Threats The marbled cat is endangered due to the dramatic loss of tropical rainforest, which is their habitat. The wild population is unknown. Edited by Taipan, Nov 10 2017, 08:18 PM.
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| Taipan | Jan 10 2012, 01:40 PM Post #2 |
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![]() MARBLED CAT. The marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata remains perhaps the most enigmatic small felid of mainland Southeast Asia. The natural history of this poorly understood cat has been the subject of debate among biologists for many years. Previous carnivore field studies have failed to capture and radio collar this species within their supposed geographic range. On May 31 2000 this female marbled cat was trapped in a steel box trap (150 cm x 50 cm x 40 cm) baited with a live chicken. The trap was located along an animal trail in a hill evergreen/bamboo mixed forest (~900 m elevation) 10 m from a stream. This individual, although lean, appeared to be in good physical condition. Examination of the nipples revealed no previous evidence of suckling. The teeth were moderately yellowed and dulled. The ectoparasite load was relatively heavy with >20 engorged ticks removed. A small tissue sample from the ear was collected for future genetic assays, and a small 80 gram radio collar was fitted. Preliminary home range data indicate an overall range of 5.8 km2 (n=23 radio locations). Over a course of 4 weeks this cat moved in a north by northwest directioninto mountainous evergreen terrain (1,000-1,500 m elevation). Activity (45%; n=180 activity readings) has been primarily nocturnal follwed by crepuscular time periods. This cat’s home range overlaps that of a radio collared female clouded leopard which is also being actively tracked in this study. The capture of this individual was unexpected as marbled cats are not listed in the most recent mammal list for Phu Khieo WS and, in fact, are not shown on many distribution maps as ranging in northeastern Thailand. Clearly a reevaluation of this species’ distribution in this region is needed. Throughout the northeast most forested land has been converted into agricultural land. The Petchabun forest Complex, which contains Phu Khieo WS and Khao Yai National Park to the south, is the only large remaining forest block. Within both protected areas marbled cat presence has recently been confirmed. The similar habitat requirements and morphology of the clouded leopard and marbled cat, in addition to the relatively high density of clouded leopards, may favor the marbled cat in Phu Khieo WS. However, the fact that this prime adult female has yet to give birth may indicate very low densities and subsequent difficulty in locating a mate.
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| Taipan | Jun 18 2013, 07:19 PM Post #3 |
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Cam trap footage of marbled cat
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| Taipan | Mar 24 2016, 04:15 PM Post #4 |
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Elusive Marbled Cats Secretly Photographed in Borneo by Laura Geggel, Staff Writer | March 23, 2016 05:38pm ET ![]() The marbled cat, an arboreal specialist, is often found in trees. It gets its name from its unique marbled-patterned coat. Credit: Karen Povey A secret photo shoot deep in the forests of Malaysian Borneo is helping researchers determine just how many marbled cats — rare, tree-climbing felines — live in the region, according to a new study. Marbled cats (Pardofelis marmorata) are extremely elusive creatures. To get a better idea of the cats' stomping grounds, the researchers placed camera traps in eight forests and two palm oil plantations in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, they said. After four months of secret, motion-triggered infrared photography, the researchers found that marbled cats are most numerous in the lowlands where the forest is undisturbed. However, they did find a few cats in selectively logged areas. "We show that marbled cats can still survive in logged forests," said study lead researcher Andrew Hearn, a doctoral candidate at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. "This lends further weight to the argument that such disturbed forests are important to the conservation of biodiversity and should be preserved wherever possible." Little is known about the cats, which are named for their marble-patterned fur. They live in dense tropical forests, and are rarely seen, except for the odd camera-trap sighting. Perhaps that's because the species is listed as "near threatened," according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list, largely due to habitat loss and poaching. The marbled cat has a furry and long tail, which it often holds horizontally while walking, the researchers wrote in the study. The tail acts as a counterbalance when the cat is climbing trees, and is likely an adaptation for a tree-climbing lifestyle, they said. Credit: A.J. Hearn and J. Ross In the new study, the researchers used the surreptitiously taken photos to identify individual cats and estimate the species' population density and distribution. They found that the lowland Danum Valley Conservation Area had about 19.5 cats per 39 square miles (100 square kilometers). Tawau Hills Park had fewer — about seven cats per 39 square miles. The Tabin Wildlife Reserve, which was selectively logged from 1969 to 1989, had an estimated density of about 10 cats per 39 square miles. These estimates provide "tentative evidence" that undisturbed, lowland hill forests have the highest densities of marbled cats, Hearn said. Other areas, including disturbed lowlands and undisturbed highlands, had lower densities of the cats, he said. The camera traps didn't record any marbled-cat sightings within the plantations, although one cat was spotted walking along the forest-plantation boundary, the researchers added. They also photographed cubs in the Tabin North, Tawau and Ulu Segama forests. The results of this exhaustive study suggest that the marbled-cat population may be somewhat higher in northern Borneo than it is elsewhere, but more studies are needed to verify this, Hearn said. For instance, researchers could use camera traps in other places in which the cats are found in the Indomalayan ecorealm, a region extending from eastern India and Nepal to Yunnan province, China; and throughout mainland Southeast Asia to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. But enforced regulations could increase the number of Borneo's marbled cats even more. Although poaching is illegal, the researchers found used shotgun cartridges in seven of the eight forests. However, they didn't come across any evidence that poachers are shooting marbled cats, the scientists wrote in the study. Laws governing logging and forest conservation may also help preserve the population of marbled cats, Hearn said. "We provide further evidence that logged forest may still be used by these cats, and should be preserved," he said. The study was published online today (March 23) in the journal PLOS ONE. http://www.livescience.com/54148-marbled-cats-photographed-in-borneo.html Journal Reference: Hearn AJ, Ross J, Bernard H, Bakar SA, Hunter LTB, Macdonald DW (2016) The First Estimates of Marbled Cat Pardofelis marmorata Population Density from Bornean Primary and Selectively Logged Forest. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0151046. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0151046 Abstract The marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata is a poorly known wild cat that has a broad distribution across much of the Indomalayan ecorealm. This felid is thought to exist at low population densities throughout its range, yet no estimates of its abundance exist, hampering assessment of its conservation status. To investigate the distribution and abundance of marbled cats we conducted intensive, felid-focused camera trap surveys of eight forest areas and two oil palm plantations in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Study sites were broadly representative of the range of habitat types and the gradient of anthropogenic disturbance and fragmentation present in contemporary Sabah. We recorded marbled cats from all forest study areas apart from a small, relatively isolated forest patch, although photographic detection frequency varied greatly between areas. No marbled cats were recorded within the plantations, but a single individual was recorded walking along the forest/plantation boundary. We collected sufficient numbers of marbled cat photographic captures at three study areas to permit density estimation based on spatially explicit capture-recapture analyses. Estimates of population density from the primary, lowland Danum Valley Conservation Area and primary upland, Tawau Hills Park, were 19.57 (SD: 8.36) and 7.10 (SD: 1.90) individuals per 100 km2, respectively, and the selectively logged, lowland Tabin Wildlife Reserve yielded an estimated density of 10.45 (SD: 3.38) individuals per 100 km2. The low detection frequencies recorded in our other survey sites and from published studies elsewhere in its range, and the absence of previous density estimates for this felid suggest that our density estimates may be from the higher end of their abundance spectrum. We provide recommendations for future marbled cat survey approaches. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0151046 Edited by Taipan, Nov 10 2017, 08:22 PM.
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| Taipan | Nov 10 2017, 08:30 PM Post #5 |
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First-ever population estimate of the mysterious marbled cat from continental Asia revealed by Shreya Dasgupta on 6 October 2017 ![]() Marbled cat captured by a camera trap in Dampa Tiger Reserve, Mizoram, India. Image courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford.
Several wildcats that trudge through the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia still remain a mystery. The house-cat sized marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata), for instance, is one of the most secretive and little-known wildcats occurring in the region. Scientists have caught glimpses of the strikingly patterned cat in images and videos captured by motion-sensitive camera traps, but they still know very little about the cat’s population numbers or what threatens its survival in the wild. The only population density estimate for these cats is known from the island of Borneo. Now, scientists have the first-ever estimate of population density of the marbled cat from continental Asia. In a study published in the Journal of Mammology, researchers Priya Singh, affiliated to Researchers for Wildlife Conservation (RWC) in Bangalore, India, and David W. Macdonald of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, have also estimated the population density of the elusive clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). ![]() Clouded leopards are extremely elusive animals. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. To get to the numbers, Singh and her team set up a grid of 148 camera traps in the rugged terrain of the Dampa Tiger Reserve in the state of Mizoram in northeast India. The most difficult part of the field work, Singh said, was to ensure the safety of her team “in an environment rife with incidents of kidnapping, and camera thefts and damage.” From the photographs captured by the cameras, the team identified 10 individuals each of the marbled cat and the clouded leopard (coat patterns of both wildcats are unique to each individual). Finally, the study estimated a density of five marbled cats per 100 square kilometers (~38.6 square miles), making it only the second such estimate from any part of the species’ range. The researchers also estimated a density of about five clouded leopards per 100 square kilometers in Dampa, which they say is the highest recorded density of clouded leopards in Asia. The seemingly high densities of marbled cats and clouded leopards in Dampa could be because larger cats like leopards and tigers are rarer in the area, Singh said. “That apart, the landscape surrounding our study area in Dampa is undergoing vast scale land-use changes triggered by conversion of land for monocultures of palm-oil, and an expansion of area under frequent jhum cultivation,” she added, referring to a form of slash-and-burn agriculture. “This in-turn could have resulted in an artificial inflation of clouded leopard numbers in the adjoining relatively well-protected core area of Dampa that formed our study area.” ![]() Clouded leopard captured by a camera trap in Dampa Tiger Reserve, Mizoram, India. Image courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford. “The science of this study is excellent,” said Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, CEO of Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, who was not involved in the study. “And I believe that these are probably two of the best density estimates that have been obtained for these species to date.” However, Rabinowitz added that he would hesitate to call the clouded leopard density “one of the highest in Asia”. “First of all the density is comparable to another study, and there are so few estimates that have been done, that I am not certain that this is a high density at all, versus perhaps an optimal or carry capacity density,” he said. “Also, I think that this study was done better than previous work, so while I think these density estimates stand as an excellent benchmark, we need much more data before making relative comparisons.” Singh agreed that while the density estimates for the two cats seem high compared to those from other parts of their range, the actual numbers are still on the lower side. “A density estimate of [around] five per 100 square kilometers is indeed very surprising for a small carnivore, found in a forested habitat with relatively high prey presence,” said Singh. Data like these are, however, very important when trying to understand carnivore interactions or for planning conservation efforts, said Rabinowitz. “These densities are also important because they show that in relatively intact forest areas, these secretive, little known species can survive in good numbers,” he added. https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/study-reveals-first-ever-population-estimates-of-the-mysterious-marbled-cat-from-continental-asia/ Journal Reference: Singh P and Macdonald DW (2017) Populations and activity patterns of clouded leopards and marbled cats in Dampa Tiger Reserve, India. Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 98, Issue 5, 3 October 2017, Pages 1453–1462, DOI:10.1093/jmammal/gyx104. Abstract The rapidly declining tropical forests of Asia support a diversity of felid species, many of which are rare and little known. We used camera traps in Dampa Tiger Reserve (TR), Mizoram, northeastern India, to estimate population density and describe activity patterns of 2 rare felids, the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata). With a survey effort of 4,962 trap nights, we obtained 84 photo-captures of clouded leopards and 36 of marbled cats. We used spatially explicit capture-recapture methods to estimate population densities of both species. Using the Bayesian approach implemented in SPACECAP, we derived estimates of 5.14 (± 1.80 SD)/100 km2 for clouded leopards and 5.03 (± 2.07 SD)/100 km2 for marbled cats. Using camera-trap images, we compared diel activity patterns and activity overlaps for these 2 rare felids, together with 3 other sympatric carnivores, by estimating a coefficient of overlap between species. Among felids, clouded leopards and golden cats (Catopuma temminckii) displayed the highest overlap in activity, whereas marbled cats and leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) showed the lowest, with marbled cats being primarily diurnal and leopard cats nocturnal. Our study provides the first density estimates from continental Southeast Asia for marbled cats and one of the highest recorded densities for clouded leopards. These results are of special significance since Dampa sustains an ecosystem that has in recent times undergone near extirpation of large predators. https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jmammal/gyx104/4107910/Populations-and-activity-patterns-of-clouded?redirectedFrom=fulltext Edited by Taipan, Nov 10 2017, 08:38 PM.
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The_First_Estimates_of_Marbled_Cat_Pardofelis_marmorata_Population_Density_from_Bornean_.pdf (694.97 KB)



2:14 AM Jul 14