Pampas cat

"Colocolo" redirects here. For other uses, see Colocolo (disambiguation).

Pampas cat
Pampas cat with the third pelage type
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Felinae
Genus: Leopardus
Species:
L. colocola[1]
Binomial name
Leopardus colocola[1]
(Molina, 1782)
Subspecies
  • L. c. colocola (Molina, 1782)
  • L. c. pajeros (Desmarest, 1816)
  • L. c. braccatus (Cope, 1889)
  • L. c. garleppi (Matschie, 1912)
  • L. c. budini (Pocock, 1941)
  • L. c. munoai (Ximénez, 1961)
  • L. c. wolffsohni (Garcia-Perea, 1994)
Distribution of the Pampas cat, 2016[2]

The Pampas cat (Leopardus colocola) is a small wild cat native to South America.[1] It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List as habitat conversion and destruction may cause the population to decline in the future.[2]

It is named after the Pampas, but occurs in grassland, shrubland, and dry forest at elevations up to 5,000 m (16,000 ft).[3]

There was a proposal to divide the Pampas cat into three distinct species, based primarily on differences in pelage colour/pattern and cranial measurements.[3] Accordingly, three species were recognised in the 2005 edition of Mammal Species of the World: the colocolo (L. colocolo), the Pantanal cat (L. braccatus), and the Pampas cat (L. pajeros) with a more restricted definition.[4] This split at species level was not supported by subsequent phylogeographic analysis, although some geographical substructure was recognised,[5][6] and some authorities continue to recognise the Pampas cat as a single species.[2][7] In the 2017 revision of felid taxonomy by the Cat Specialist Group, the Pampas cat is recognized as a single species with seven subspecies.[1] An analysis of 142 skins collected across South America revealed morphological differences between these museum specimens. It was therefore proposed to recognize five distinct species within the Pampas cat complex.[8]

  1. ^ a b c Kitchener, A. C.; Breitenmoser-Würsten, C.; Eizirik, E.; Gentry, A.; Werdelin, L.; Wilting, A.; Yamaguchi, N.; Abramov, A. V.; Christiansen, P.; Driscoll, C.; Duckworth, J. W.; 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 Cat Specialist Group" (PDF). Cat News (Special Issue 11): 51–54.
  2. ^ a b c d e Lucherini, M.; Eizirik, E.; de Oliveira, T.; Pereira, J.; Williams, R.S.R. (2016). "Leopardus colocolo". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T15309A97204446. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  3. ^ a b Garcia-Perea, R. (1994). "The Pampas cat group (Genus Lynchailurus Severertzov 1858) (Carnivora: Felidae): A systematic and biogeographic review" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (3096): 1–35.
  4. ^ Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 538–539. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  5. ^ Johnson, W. E.; Slattery, J. P.; Eizirik, E.; Kim, J. H.; Menotti Raymond, M.; Bonacic, C.; Cambre, R.; Crawshaw, P.; Nunes, A.; Seuánez, H. N.; Martins Moreira, M. A. (1999). "Disparate phylogeographic patterns of molecular genetic variation in four closely related South American small cat species". Molecular Ecology. 8 (12 Suppl 1): S79–94. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.1999.00796.x. PMID 10703553. S2CID 34990824.
  6. ^ Macdonald, D.; Loveridge, A., eds. (2010). The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-923445-5.
  7. ^ Sunquist, M. E.; Sunquist, F. C. (2009). "Colocolo (Leopardus colocolo)". In Wilson, D. E.; Mittermeier, R. A. (eds.). Handbook of the Mammals of the World, Vol. 1. Barcelona: Lynx Ediciones. p. 146. ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1.
  8. ^ Nascimento, F.O.D.; Cheng, J. & Feijó, A. (2021). "Taxonomic revision of the pampas cat Leopardus colocola complex (Carnivora: Felidae): an integrative approach". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 191 (2): 575–611. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa043.