Eng. Marbled cat

 

Distribution: South-East Asia (Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, India).

 

Description: marbled cat - a small predator that looks like the clouded leopard. Fur thick and soft. The tail is thick. The upper canines are small, long. Feet short. The skull is high, rounded. The occipital region of the broad low ridges. The upper premolars missing tooth or residual.

Kind of a long time attributed to the subfamily Felinae, but after DNA tests zoologists have found that it is much closer to Pantherinae (lions and tigers).

 

Color: the main background of yellow-gold body, with large black, irregularly outlined patches (shade paler at the edges). Cornea eye is brown. Chin and upper lip - white. The lower part of abdomen and chest lighter than the background. The ears are black, white spot on the back.

 

Size: 35-55 cm tail length, body reaches 45-53 cm in height at the withers: 30-40 cm.

 

Weight: 4-8 kg.

 

Life expectancy: 12 years.

 

voice: something like a cat house cat voice.

 

marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata), photo, picture Habitat: humid tropical forest, the foothills, mixed deciduous and evergreen forest and secondary 1,500-3,000 m above sea level.

 

Food: the diet of marbled cats are small mammals (tree squirrels, fruit bats), birds, reptiles and amphibians, and insects.

 

Behavior: marble cat is mostly nocturnal arboreal lifestyle (on Borneo hunts mainly on the ground). Moves along the branches of trees. Hearing is well developed and can hear sounds up to 65-70 kHz, which allows it to detect sounds, reproducible primary prey.

 

Social structure: leads a solitary life. Individual plot is about 5.8 km2.

 

Season / breeding season: all year.

 

Puberty: at 21-22 months.

 

Pregnancy lasts 66-81 days.

 

In the litter the marble cat 04/01 blind and deaf kitten. Birth weight less than 100 grams. Ears open at 5 day of life, eye for 14-16 days. Kittens begin to walk for 20-22 days. The spots appear at the kittens, who was four months. Move on to solid foods at the age of 100-120 days.

 

Population / conservation status: a marble cat - a rare species listed in the Convention, CITES (Appendix I). The population does not exceed 10 000 individuals. The main threat to the species: loss of habitat, concern person. There are two subspecies: Pardofelis marmorata marmorata - Southeast Asia tropical, P. m. charltoni - Nepal.