In 2013, the oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), a species of small noticed cat from the Americas, was cut up into two species: the northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) and the southern tiger cat (Leopardus guttulus). New analysis led by the Universidade Estadual do Maranhão exhibits that the oncilla is in truth three separate species.
The clouded tiger cat (Leopardus pardinoides). Image credit score: Johannes Pfleiderer.
Oncillas are wild, housecat-sized felids native to montane and tropical rainforests of Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina.
Also referred to as tiger cats, these creatures resemble margays (Leopardus wiedii) and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), however they’re smaller, with a slender build and narrower muzzle.
They weight as little as 1.5 kg, and normally don’t exceed 3 kg with males barely bigger than females. Their physique size will be anyplace between 35 to 60 cm, with a top of about 25 cm.
Oncillas have a yellowish-ochre background pelage predominantly patterned with open rosettes.
They eat small mammals, lizards, birds, eggs, invertebrates, and sometimes tree frogs.
They usually stay for 10 to 14 years within the wild, and though they’ve been recognized to stay for as much as 23 years in captivity.
They are threatened by habitat loss for cattle ranching, agriculture and native commerce for pets.
“The tiger cat species complex, the original species from old taxonomic schemes, is one of the most intriguing, enigmatic, and fascinating group of felids,” mentioned Universidade Estadual do Maranhão researcher Tadeu de Oliveira and colleagues.
“Owing to the limited knowledge available, the tiger cat, before and after the species split, has long been the subject of several preconceptions regarding where it ranges and the associated habitats. These include its presence in the Amazon Basin and in the Pantanal.”
“As it stands today, the tiger cat species complex is currently composed of two species: Leopardus tigrinus and Leopardus guttulus, with the former is further divided into three subspecies: Leopardus tigrinus oncilla, Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides, and Leopardus tigrinus tigrinus,” they added.
“Leopardus tigrinus and Leopardus guttulus are both currently defined as globally threatened species.”
“They inhabit some of the most threatened ecoregions and biodiversity hotspots in the Americas, including the Cerrado, Tropical Andes, Atlantic Forest, and the Talamanca mountain range.”
“With the exception of Leopardus tigrinus tigrinus, there are no published conservation priority areas for the entities in the complex.”
“Given their threatened status and the high rates of habitat loss within their respective ranges, it is imperative to identify the areas that are more likely to harbor viable populations of these species.”
Classic examples of the tiger cat species advanced: (a) the savanna tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus); (b) the clouded tiger cat (Leopardus pardinoides); and (c) the Atlantic Forest tiger cat (Leopardus guttulus). Image credit score: Ricardo Ribeiro / Johannes Pfleiderer / de Oliveira et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-52379-8.
In their analysis, the authors sought to find out the precise distribution vary of the tiger cat species and subspecies, examine their traits, and assess the similarities and variations amongst them.
Ultimately, they aimed to characterize the tiger cats to find out the precise variety of species.
“Our results reveal the existence of a cryptic species, the clouded tiger cat (Leopardus pardinoides), which includes both Leopardus tigrinus oncilla and Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides,” they mentioned.
According to the crew, Leopardus pardinoides is a long-tailed cat with short-round ears, weighing 2.27 kg.
The new species has a remarkably margay-looking head, which has a pleasant dense delicate fur of a wealthy reddish/orangish/grayish-yellow background coloration adorned with irregularly formed medium-large ‘cloudy’ rosettes which are strongly marked and sometimes coalesce.
Distinctively, Leopardus pardinoides has just one pair of mammae/teats.
The species is discovered within the vanishing cloud forests of the southern Central American and Andean ranges at usually above 1,500 m above seal degree, however particularly between 2,000 and three,000 m, in a sub-tropical/temperate local weather with gentle temperatures and really plentiful rainfall, usually in areas the place ocelot numbers are low or absent.
“Leopardus pardinoides ranges along 11 mountain ecoregions,” the researchers mentioned.
“In Central America, it is restricted to the Tilarán, Central Volcanic, and Talamanca cordilleras of Costa Rica and Panama (the Talamancan montane forests ecoregion) and the eastern Panamanian montane forests.”
“The lowland rainforest and swamps of the Atrato river basin in the Chocó-Darién ecoregion is the primary barrier between the eastern Panamanian and Andean populations of the clouded tiger cat, while to the north, the species is limited by the Isthmian-Atlantic rainforest.”
“In South America, the range extends from the Venezuelan Andean forests through the eastern, central, and western cordilleras of Colombia, into Ecuador, all the way through the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Southern Andean Yungas forests ecoregions, and ends in northwest Argentina.”
“The core area of its distribution lies in Colombia, but extends into Ecuador.”
The crew’s results seem within the journal Scientific Reports.
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T.G de Oliveira et al. 2024. Ecological modeling, biogeography, and phenotypic analyses setting the tiger cats’ hyperdimensional niches reveal a brand new species. Sci Rep 14, 2395; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-52379-8
