Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Carnivora. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Oncilla (Little Spotted Cat) - Leopardus tigrinus
Topic Started: Feb 19 2012, 02:03 PM (5,654 Views)
Taipan
Member Avatar
Administrator

Oncilla (Little Spotted Cat) - Leopardus tigrinus

Posted Image

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Leopardus
Species: Leopardus tigrinus

The Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), also known as the Little Spotted Cat, Tigrillo, Cunaguaro or Tiger Cat, is a small spotted felid found in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. It is a close relative of the Ocelot and the Margay, and has a rich ochre coat, spotted with black rosettes. The Oncilla is a nocturnal animal that hunts rodents and birds.

Posted Image

Appearance
The Oncilla resembles the Margay and the Ocelot, but is smaller, with a slender build and narrower muzzle. It grows to 38 to 59 centimetres (15 to 23 in) long, plus a 20 to 42 centimetres (7.9 to 17 in) tail. While this is somewhat longer than the average domestic cat, Leopardus tigrinus is generally lighter, weighing 1.5 to 3 kilograms (3.3 to 6.6 lb).

Posted Image

The fur is thick and soft, ranging from light brown to dark ochre, with numerous dark rosettes across the back and flanks. The underside is pale with dark spots and the tail is ringed. The backs of the ears are black with bold ocelli. The rosettes are black or brown, open in the center, and irregularly shaped. The legs have medium-sized spots tapering to smaller spots near the paws. This coloration helps the oncilla blend in with the mottled sunlight of the tropical forest understory. The Oncilla's jaw is shortened, with fewer teeth, but with well-developed carnassials and canines.

Some melanistic oncillas have been reported from the more heavily forested parts of its range.

Behavior
The Oncilla is a primarily terrestrial animal, but is also an adept climber. Like all cats, the Oncilla is an obligate carnivore, requiring meat for survival. This cat eats small mammals, lizards, birds, eggs, invertebrates, and the occasional tree frog. Occasionally, the cat will eat grasses. They are generally nocturnal, but in areas such as Caatinga, where their main food source consists of diurnal lizards, they are more likely to be active during the day.

The Oncilla stalks its prey from a distance, and once in range, it pounces to catch and kill the prey. Young oncillas have been observed to purr, while adults are known to make short, gurgling calls when close to one another.

Distribution and habitat
Posted Image

This species shows a strong preference for montane forest, and are usually found in elevations higher than those of the margay or ocelot. They have been found in habitats as high as 4500m in Colombia, in the Andean highlands in Ecuador, and in the subtropical forest highlands in Brazil. They have also been identified in cerrado and scrubland environments. They are typically distributed from Costa Rica through Northern Argentina. They have been recorded in northern Panama, but the remainder of the country appears to be a gap in the species' range.

Reproduction
Estrus lasts from 3 to 9 days, with older cats having shorter cycles. Oncillas produce 1 to 3 kittens (usually only one), after a gestation of 74 to 76 days. The kittens' eyes open after eight to seventeen days, an unusually long period for a cat of this size. Unlike other cats, in which the incisor teeth tend to appear first, the teeth of an oncilla kitten erupt more or less simultaneously, at around 21 days of age. The kittens do not begin to take solid food until they are 38 to 56 days old (much older than in the domestic cat), but are fully weaned at three months.

Oncillas reach sexual maturity at around two to two and a half years of age. They have a life span of about 11 years in the wild, but there are records of these cats reaching an age of 17 years.

Posted Image

Subspecies
The following are the currently recognized subspecies:

Leopardus tigrinus tigrinus, eastern Venezuela, Guyana, northeastern Brazil
Leopardus tigrinus guttulus, central and southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, northern Argentina
Leopardus tigrinus oncilla, Central America
Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides, western Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador

Although the Central American Oncilla is listed as a separate subspecies, based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, Johnson et al. (1999) found strongly supported differences between L.t. oncilla in Costa Rica and L.t. guttulus in southern Brazil, comparable to differences between different neotropical species. Researchers have argued that there should be a splitting of the Oncilla into two species, as there is pronounced difference in appearance between the Oncillas in Costa Rica as compared to those in central and southern Brazil. The level of divergence between oncillas from Costa Rica and from central and southern Brazil suggest that the two populations have been isolated, perhaps by the Amazon River, for approximately 3.7 million years. Further samples of L.t. oncilla are needed from northern South America to determine whether this taxon ranges outside Central America, and whether it should be considered a distinct species rather than a subspecies.

A zone of hybridization between the oncilla and the colocolo has been found through genetic analyses of specimens from central Brazil.

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Taipan
Member Avatar
Administrator

Photo of Rare, Mysterious Cat Wins Competition


OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Date: 29 November 2012 Time: 05:42 PM ET

Posted Image
This rare, mysterious cat species, called an oncilla, was photographed by a camera trap in Bolivia's Madidi National Park in July 2012.

A rarely seen Bolivian wild cat species was photographed by a camera trap in one of the country's national park, the first time it has been spotted there.

The photo of the cat, called an oncilla, won a category of a camera trap competition run by the magazine BBC Wildlife.

The oncilla, about the size of a house cat, is found throughout the Amazon and the tropical Andes. The cat is rarely spotted, and little is known about its life history, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), whose researchers took the photo as part of a camera trap survey in the area in July 2012.

The survey captured photos of jaguars and other wildlife in Madidi, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. The 7,335-square-mile (19,000 square kilometers) park hosts 11 percent of the world's birds, more than 200 mammal species, almost 300 fish species and 12,000 varieties of plants. This wide array of species is found in an equally diverse set of ecosystems, from lowland tropical forests to the peaks of the High Andes.

With this evidence that the oncilla dwells in Madidi, the number of confirmed cat species in the park now stands at six, with two more waiting to be confirmed, the WCS said in a statement.

WCS researchers Guido Ayala, Maria Viscarra and Robert Wallace submitted the photo in the New Discoveries category of the BBC Wildlife competition. The winning entry received £1,000 (approximately $1,500), courtesy of Paramo Directional Clothing Systems and the World Land Trust. The photo is featured in the December issue of the magazine.

http://www.livescience.com/25134-rare-cat-photo.html
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Scalesofanubis
Omnivore
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
So, the little spotted cat is little spotted?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
ZetaBoards gives you all the tools to create a successful discussion community.
« Previous Topic · Feline · Next Topic »
Add Reply