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| Leopard Cat - Prionailurus bengalensis | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:22 PM (2,355 Views) | |
| Taipan | Jan 7 2012, 08:22 PM Post #1 |
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Leopard Cat - Prionailurus bengalensis![]() Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Prionailurus Species: Prionailurus bengalensis The Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) is a small wild cat of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. There are eleven subspecies of Leopard Cat, classified according to their wide geographic dispersal. The Leopard Cat's name is derived from the leopard-like spots prevalent in all subspecies, but its relation to the leopard is distant, as the leopard is a member of a different genus, Panthera. Distribution ![]() The Leopard Cat has a wide geographic distribution, stretching from Pakistan to Borneo and Manchuria. It can be found in forest areas throughout Indonesia, Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, China, and Taiwan. The cat also can be found in Korea, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Habitat Their range of habitat is varied, and includes tropical forest, scrubland, pine forest, second-growth woodland, semi-desert, and agricultural regions, especially near water sources; they may also be found at heights up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). Physical characteristics On average, the Leopard Cat is as large as a Domestic Cat, but there are considerable regional differences: in Indonesia the average head-body length is 46 centimetres (18 in) with a weight of 2.2 kilograms (4.9 lb), while it is 65 centimetres (26 in) and 6 to 7.5 kilograms (13 to 17 lb) in the southern Amur region.[3] The shoulder height is 41 cm (16 in) and the tail is about 40-50% of the head-body length. The fur color is also variable: it is yellow in the southern populations, but silver-grey in the northern ones. The chest and the lower part of the head are white. The Leopard Cat bears black markings that may be spotted, rosetted, or even forming dotted streaks, depending on the subspecies. There are two dark stripes running from the eyes to the ears, and smaller white streaks running from the eyes to the nose. The backs of the ears are black with a central white spot. Leopard cats have webbed toes, and are good swimmers. ![]() Habitat and behavior Leopard cats inhabit a wide range of habitats, including tropical forest, scrubland, pine forest, second-growth woodland, semi-desert, and agricultural regions, especially near water sources; they may also be found at heights up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). Within their range, they are generally only absent from arid regions (such as eastern India) and from areas with heavy winter snowfall. The Leopard Cat is a skilful tree climber, and sometimes hunts or rests in tree branches. It is also able to swim, but will seldom do so. This cat is nocturnal, and during the day it spends its time in dens that may be hollow trees, cavities under roots, or caves. It spends time outside during the day in areas where there are no humans. The Leopard Cat is solitary, except during breeding season, and produces a similar range of vocalisations to the domestic cat. Male leopard cats occupy home ranges from 3.5 to 7.5 square kilometres (1.4 to 2.9 sq mi) in area, overlapping the territories of several neighbouring females. As with many other cats, the females occupy smaller ranges, in this case being between 2 and 2.5 square kilometres (0.77 and 0.97 sq mi) in size. Both sexes scent mark their territory by spraying urine, leaving faeces in exposed locations, head rubbing, and scratching. Reproduction and development There is no fixed breeding period in the southern part of its range; in the colder northern parts it tends to breed around March or April, when the weather is mild enough to support newborn kittens. The estrus period lasts for 5-9 days. If the kittens do not survive, the mother can come into heat again and have another litter that year. After a gestation period of 60-70 days, two to four kittens are born in a den, where they remain until they are a month old. The kittens weigh about 75 to 130 grams (2.6 to 4.6 oz) at birth and usually double their weight by age of two weeks; at five weeks, they are four times their birth weight. The eyes open at ten days, and the kittens start to eat solid food at 23 days. At the age of four weeks, the permanent canines appear, and the kittens begin to eat solid food. Leopard cats usually pair for life and raise their kittens together for about 7 to 10 months. Full maturity is reached at 18 months, but in captivity, the male can become ready to breed at 7 months, and the female at 10 months. Leopard cats have lived for up to thirteen years in captivity. ![]() Diet Leopard cats are carnivorous, and feed on variety of small prey, including mammals, lizards, amphibians, birds, and insects. In most parts of their range, small rodents such as rats and mice form the major part of their diet. The Northern subspecies of Leopard Cat also eat hares. The diet is often supplemented with grass, eggs, poultry, and aquatic prey. Leopard cats are active hunters, dispatching their prey with a rapid pounce and bite. Unlike many other small cats, they do not "play" with their food, maintaining a tight grip with their claws until the animal is dead. This may be related to the relatively high proportion of birds in their diet, which are more likely to escape when released than are rodents. Conservation In Hong Kong, the Leopard Cat is a protected species under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance Cap 170. The population is well over 50,000 individuals and although declining, the cat is not endangered. The conservation status of the Leopard Cat is listed as Appendix II in CITES (species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled), and of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species |
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| Taipan | Jan 26 2016, 12:03 PM Post #2 |
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Cats domesticated in China earlier than 3000 BC Date: January 25, 2016 Source: CNRS ![]() Side view of a domestic cat skull from the Neolithic site of Wuzhuangguoliang (Shaanxi, 3200-2800 BC). Credit: © J.-D. Vigne, CNRS/MNHN Were domestic cats brought to China over 5,000 years ago? Or were small cats domesticated in China at that time? There was no way of deciding between these two hypotheses until a team from the 'Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements' laboratory (CNRS/MNHN), in collaboration with colleagues from the UK and China, succeeded in determining the species corresponding to cat remains found in agricultural settlements in China, dating from around 3500 BC. All the bones belong to the leopard cat, a distant relation of the western wildcat, from which all modern domestic cats are descended. The scientists have thus provided evidence that cats began to be domesticated in China earlier than 3,000 BC. This scenario is comparable to that which took place in the Near East and Egypt, where a relationship between humans and cats developed following the birth of agriculture. Their findings are published on 22 January 2016 in the journal PLOS ONE. The cat is the most common domestic animal in the world today, with over 500 million individuals. All of today's domestic cats descend from the African and Near Eastern form of the wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). According to work published in 2004, humans and cats first started to form a close relationship in the Near East from 9000 to 7000 BC, following the birth of agriculture. In 2001, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing discovered cat bones in agricultural settlements in northern China (Shaanxi province) dating from around 3500 BC. Was this evidence of a relationship between small Chinese cats and humans in the fourth millennium BC in China? Or was it the result of the arrival in China of the first domestic cats from the Near East? There was no way of deciding between these two hypotheses without identifying the species to which the bones belonged. Although there are no less than four different forms of small cat in China, the subspecies from which modern cats are descended (Felis silvestris lybica) has never been recorded there. To try to settle the question, a collaboration of scientists principally from CNRS, the French Natural History Museum (MNHN), the University of Aberdeen, the Chinese Academy of Social Science and the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology undertook a geometric morphometric analysis, which, in the absence of ancient DNA, is the only way of differentiating the bones of such small cats, which have very similar morphologies whose differences are often imperceptible using conventional techniques. The scientists analyzed the mandibles of five cats from Shaanxi and Henan dating from 3500 to 2900 BC. Their work clearly determined that the bones all belonged to the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). Still very widespread in Eastern Asia today, this wildcat, which is a distant relation of the western wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), is well-known for its propensity to frequent areas with a strong human presence. Just as in the Near East and Egypt, leopard cats were probably attracted into Chinese settlements by the proliferation of rodents who took advantage of grain stores. These conclusions show that a process comparable to the one that took place in the Near East and in Egypt developed independently in China following the birth of agriculture in the eighth millennium BC. In China it was the leopard cat (P. bengalensis) and not the western wildcat (F. silvestris) that started to form a relationship with humans. Cat domestication was, at least in three regions of the world, therefore closely connected to the beginnings of agriculture. Nevertheless, domestic cats in China today are not descended from the leopard cat but rather from its relation F. silvestris lybica. The latter therefore replaced the leopard cat in Chinese settlements after the end of the Neolithic. Did it arrive in China with the opening of the Silk Road, when the Roman and Han empires began to establish tenuous links between East and West? This is the next question that needs to be answered. Story Source: CNRS. "Cats domesticated in China earlier than 3000 BC." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160125100118.htm (accessed January 25, 2016). Journal Reference: Jean-Denis Vigne, Allowen Evin, Thomas Cucchi, Lingling Dai, Chong Yu, Songmei Hu, Nicolas Soulages, Weilin Wang, Zhouyong Sun, Jiangtao Gao, Keith Dobney, Jing Yuan. Earliest “Domestic” Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). PLOS ONE, 2016; 11 (1): e0147295 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147295 Abstract The ancestor of all modern domestic cats is the wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, with archaeological evidence indicating it was domesticated as early as 10,000 years ago in South-West Asia. A recent study, however, claims that cat domestication also occurred in China some 5,000 years ago and involved the same wildcat ancestor (F. silvestris). The application of geometric morphometric analyses to ancient small felid bones from China dating between 5,500 to 4,900 BP, instead reveal these and other remains to be that of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). These data clearly indicate that the origins of a human-cat ‘domestic’ relationship in Neolithic China began independently from South-West Asia and involved a different wild felid species altogether. The leopard cat’s ‘domestic’ status, however, appears to have been short-lived—its apparent subsequent replacement shown by the fact that today all domestic cats in China are genetically related to F. silvestris. Fig 1. Modern distribution of wild felid species, archaeological site location and mandible shape relationship between modern wild felid species and domestic cat. (A), Modern Old World distribution of the different wild cat subspecies (Felis silvestris) and the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), and location of the three Middle-Late Neolithic sites of the Shaanxi and Henan Provinces (China) analyzed in this paper: 1, Quanhucun, 2, Wuzhuangguoliang, 3, Xiawanggang (Redrawn from [http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=60354712] and [http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=18146] under a CC BY license, with permission from IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; S1 Text.; CAD I. Carrère); (B), Phenotypic relationship (unrooted neighbour joining tree) built on mandible shape distances between modern domestic cat (F. catus), leopard cat (P. bengalensis) and the two relevant sub-species of wild cat (F. s. silvestris; F. s. lybica) from our analyses. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147295 |
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