Leopard Cats of the genus Leopardus
are small Felids found in Central and South America.
There are at least seven species, all thought to be descended from a single
population that migrated from North America during the Great American Biotic
Interchange that followed the closure of the Panama Seaway in the Late
Pliocene, allowing the migration of terrestrial animals between North and South
America. As small, largely nocturnal Cats that live principally in dense
forests, these Felids are not well understood.
In a paper published in the journal Current Biology on 16 December
2013, a team of scientists led by Tatiane Trigo of the Departamento de Genética
at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul describe the discovery of a new species
of Leopard Cat.
Trigo et al. were carrying
out a genetic study of the populations of the Tigrina (Leopardus tigrinus), Geoffroy’s Cat (Leopardus geoffroyi), and the Pampas Cat (Leopardus colocolo), in order to discover the extent of
hybridisation between these three relatively young species. As they were doing
this it became apparent that the Tigrina population was divided into two
discrete populations, which did not interbreed with one-another.
Species which resemble one-another very closely and which can only
be determined by genetic analysis or detailed inspection of the anatomy
(usually post-mortem) are known as cryptic species. In recent years it has
become apparent that many species formerly thought to be widespread are in fact
several different cryptic species, which often has profound implications for the
conservation of the species in question, as the new species tend to have
smaller population sizes and more limited ranges than the original species.
The new species is named by Trigo et
al. as Leopardus guttulus, the
Southern Tigrina, comprising the more southerly of two populations formerly
assigned to the Tigrina (Leopardus tigrinus)
in Brazil, although they do not provide an explanation for this name or give a
formal description of the species (which can lead to names being challenged –
taxonomy can be both legalistic and highly competitive).
Camera-trap photographs of wild individuals illustrating
(A) the Southern Tigrina, Leopardus guttulus,
and (B) the Northern Tigrina, Leopardus tigrinus.Trigo et al. (2013).
The Southern Tigrina is described as being on average slightly
darker and having slightly larger spots than the Northern
Tigrina, though both species are variable, and cannot be reliably
distinguished visually. They do appear to inhabit slightly different
ecosystems, with the northern species favouring the open woodlands and
grasslands of the Cerrado and Caatinga, while the southern species is found in
the Brazilian Atlantic rainforests, however the two species are found together
in the middle part of their range, suggesting that this ecological separation
is not absolute either.
See also…
Stories of Big Cats sighted, or sometimes killed or captured in the
British countryside have been popular in the national press for a long
time, and modern folklore often postulates the existence of a permanent
population of such animals within the UK. Since the implementation of
the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act a number of large Felids have been
captured...
Lions (Panthera leo) are large, charismatic predators
currently found in Africa and India, with a fossil record that includes
areas of northern Eurasia and North America. Lions outside their current
range persisted in North Africa (Barbary Lions) and the Middle East...
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