Homepage of Vladimir Dinets - Wild Cats, page 2 of 5

margay
Margay, a. k. a. tigrillo (Felis wiedi), Hormiguero, Campeche.

Wild Cats - Part 2

Caracal (Felis caracal) is widespread, but rare in the Middle East, parts of Central Asia and Africa. Surprisingly, caracals are said to make good pets. They were used in Iran and India to hunt birds and small mammals. They need as much walking as a hunting dog, and as much motion as a weasel.

Asian caracal (F. c. schmitzi),
Arava Rift, Israel.

Caracals have large home ranges and can be extremely difficult to find. In places like Turkmenistan or Egypt, even finding their tracks is a great luck. In Africa, they seem to prefer dry areas, but avoid sandy deserts. In Asia, they inhabit all types of desert, as well as savannas, river valleys, foothills, even dry woodlands.

Baby African caracal
(F. c. caracal), Liboi, Kenya.

Caracals, Arava Rift, Israel.

Only in Israel they are more common and partly synantropic. This couple lived close to my cabin; I fed them frozen chicken until they became relatively tame. Although they looked like lynxes, their behavior was completely different. These cats were very short-tempered and always aggressive to each other. They were strikingly fast, even as cats go: I saw the male take six doves from a flock in one leap.

Sand cat (F. margarita harrisoni) can be seen with little effort, but some luck, in sandy deserts of Israel (unfortunately, there are few sandy areas only), or in Repetek Nature Reserve, Turkmenistan (F. m. thinobia). You have to be a good dasher: as soon as you catch a glimpse of cat's eyes reflecting your spotlight, the animal will hide it's face (natural defense: face is the only bright-colored part), and then run away in few seconds, so you'll have very short time to get close for better view. In less dry areas, it is replaced by African wild cat (F. silvestris lybica).

Sand cat, Gaza Strip, Israel.

Pallas' cat, Valley of Big
Lakes, Mongolia.

Other cats of Central Asia are more difficult to see. Driving at night in Mongolian grasslands, you can see one Pallas' cat (F. manul) in few weeks. Pallas' cat is widespread in Central Asia, from Armenia to China, but it is so rare outside Mongolia, that it can take more than a year to see one. In Central Kazakhstan, Asian wild cats (F. s. caudata) can be seen in the same way once in a few nights, but this species is extremely rare in Mongolia. Marsh edges, rocky outcrops or boulder piles with pica colonies are the best place to look for grassland cats, but flat plains can be also good if there are enough voles, especially colonies of Chinese vole (Lasiopodomus brandti). All small cats of open grasslands are more active in moonless nights.

For Jungle cat (F. chaus), the best place is Kyzylagach Nature Reserve, Azerbaijan. Cats can sometimes be seen walking along levees at night. They are constantly on the move, and resemble foxes in their hunting habits. This species is called "tule cat" in Caspian Sea area because of its preferred habitat - large reed-covered areas.

Jungle cat, Kyzylagach, Azerbaijan.

Jungle cat, Gasan-Kuli, Turkmenistan.

Jungle cat can also be seen at broad daylight if you set up a blind at the water edge in an area of dense reeds with plenty of aquatic rodents, birds and small fish. This species is highly vocal - its call resembles English exclamation "Wow!" as spoken by a tobacco addict with heavy Midwestern accent. If you hear it, try to attract the cat by imitating its call.

South American jaguar (Panthera onca onca) can be best seen by swimming along forest rivers in places like Manu Nat'l Park or, reportedly, forest reserves in Belize and Guyana. This is also a good way to see ocelot (F. pardalis maripensis). For other rainforest cats - mountain lion (F. concolor), margay (F. w. amazonica) or jaguarundi (F. yaguarondi) - it's better to wait on a low branch above a trail in upland forest (terra firma). For smaller tiger cat (F. tigrinus guttula), and for another subspecies of margay (F. w. wiedi), Bananal Island in Brazil is a good place.

Black jaguar, Rio Manu, Peru.


Ocelots, near Copan Ruinas, Honduras.

Sneezing ocelot, Crooked Tree, Belize.

Trails or rivers connecting two large blocks of forest can be used by cats and other animals every night. Narrow bands of gallery forest along rivers, such as at Kinabatangan River, Sabah; in Pantanal, Brazil; or in Northern Belize, are also good places to look for wild cats or to wait for them in hides.
Ocelot video (3.123 Kb.mpg)

Ocelot (F. p. pardalis), Crooked Tree.


Ocelot walking a riverside trail, Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, Belize.

Margay, Hormiguero, Campeche.

Of all Neotropical cats, margay is the one most likely to be seen near human settlements. It often raids henhouses or visits garbage dumps in search of rats. It can survive even in badly degraded forests as long as there's enough tall trees left.

Margays, Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras.

Margay, Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras.

Margay is the most arboreal cat in the world. Its feet structure has unique adaptations to tree climbing.

cat

Margay, Pico Bonito.

Margay, Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras.

Margay, Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras.

I have to admit that it's also my favorite cat species of the Americas. Margays seem to like me, too: I've met some unusually tame ones.

Margays, Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras.

Margays, Pico Bonito.

An interesting place to look for margays (F. w. yucatanica) is in ancient Mayan cities of Mexico and Central America. Larger ruins are usually too crowded during the day and guarded at night, but small, remote places often have more wildlife than human visitors. The pictures above and to the right are from a video obtained at dawn in Hormiguero, a small 10th century Mayan complex within Calacmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche, Mexico.

Like many forest cats, margay is perfectly camouflaged except for white ear markings. They probably make it easier for half-grown cubs to follow their mother while hunting together.


Jaguars, Rio Beni Biosphere Reserve, Bolivia.

Jaguars, Rio Beni Biosphere Reserve.

Jaguars are sometimes seen from forest or savanna roads. Of course, you might spend your entire life in South America and never see one, but sometimes you just get lucky. This trio was happily playing not far from a major highway in Rio Beni Biosphere Reserve. I think it was one male and two females. Don't ask me why there was three.


Jaguars, Rio Beni Biosphere Reserve, Bolivia.

Normally jaguars are difficult to see, but they leave plenty of signs of their presence on forest trails: tracks, scratches and other territorial markings, sometimes kills.

Jaguar tracks on a riverbank,
Madidi National Park, Bolivia .

Skull of a lowland tapit (Tapirus silvestris)
killed by a jaguar, Madidi Naional Park.

Jaguar, Rio Chajul, Guatemala.

Jaguarundi, Rio Chajul, Guatemala.

Jaguarundi, a weird little cat, looking like a mongoose or an otter, is especially common in dry forests from Chiapas to Panama.

Jaguarundi, Rio Chajul, Guatemala.


Jaguarundis, Rio Chajul, Guatemala.

This little jaguarundi was videotaped at night in a hollow tree which was apparently used for shelter by a Mexican porcupine (Cendou mexicanus) during daytime. I was lucky it wasn't a jaguar.


Jaguarundi, Finca Ecologica, Costa Rica.

Jaguarundi, Rio Cajul.

Fishing cat, Chitwan National
Park, Nepal.

Bengal cat, China/Laos border
near Menghan, Yunnan.

Swimming in forest rivers of tropical Asia is the best way to see fishing (F. viverrina), and smaller flat-headed (F. planiceps) cats. Both are partly aquatic. Bengal cat (F. bengalensis), the most widespread and common cat of Asian tropics, can be seen also by hiking at night, even in the vicinity of forest villages.

Two races of Bengal cat are very difficult to see. Iriomote cat (F. b. iriomotensis) lives only on one small island in Southern Japan. Amur cat (F. b. euptilura), is not particularly rare, but shy and hard to find. The best place to look for it is in isolated hill forests within Khanka Lake coastal lowlands in Ussuriland, Russia. Both these races are sometimes considered separate species. An undescribed subspecies from the Philippines is now very rare or extinct on all islands, except remote parts of Palawan. With some luck, it can be found in Saint Paul Subterranean River Nat'l Park. Being the only wild cat on the Philippines, it had originally inhabited a broad variety of habitats, from grassy fields to montane rainforests and mangroves. Recently hunting pressure caused it to disappear everywhere, except for the most impenetrable forests and thicklets. Its pelts are still sold on Manila markets.

Amur cat, Novoselskoe, Russia.

tracks

Bengal cat tracks, St. Paul NP.

Bengal cat, Gunung
Mulu, Sarawak.

Flat-headed cat, Gunung
Mulu, Sarawak.

In places where more than one species of small cats occurs, identifying them might be tricky. To the left are video stills of two cats the way you most often see them at night. Both were taken in Gunung Mulu Nat'l Park in Malaysian Borneo. It is one of the best places in Asia to look for small cats, because forest boardwalks allow you to move easily and quietly.

This is apparently the first photo of bay cat (F. badia) ever taken in the wild. This small cat is related to Asian golden cat, and occurs only on Borneo. It is considered very rare, but is regularly seen in Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah.

Bay Cat, Gunung Mulu, Sarawak.

Same picture, enlargened.


Mousing bobcat, Hicks Mountain, California.

Bobcat, Butano Creek,
California (snapshot
from video taken without
nightshot).

Wild cats of the North are probably the most difficult ones to see. It took me 18 months in USA to see such a common species as bobcat (F. rufus). Look for it at night in lower portions of Sequoia Nat'l Park. Forest-bordered meadows in coastal California are also good, particularly at dusk and 1-2 hours before sunset.

Bobcat, Butano Creek,
California (snapshots
from video taken with
nightshot).

Bobcat, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Florida.

Usually cat tracks, such as these baby
bobcat tracks, have no clawmarks.
Wilderness Ridge, New Mexico.

In desert areas, bobcats prefer riparian corridors, so you have a good chance of seeing one if you hike quietly along wooded streams or wait nearby. Try Buenos Aires Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, San Pedro Riparian Area, and Aravaipa Canyon, all in Arizona. Bobcats and lynxes have long legs, and can be easily mistaken for dogs in poor light or at distance.

Here the kitten used its claws,
sliding on slippery mud,
Wilderness Ridge, New Mexico.

Young bobcat, Los Gatos, California.
Bobcat mating calls tapes are available in the US, but I've never tried them.

Bobcat, Sierra del Carmen, Coahuila.

Canadian lynx (F. canadensis) can also be found by driving late at night. Roads to and within Wood Buffalo Nat'l Park, Canada, are the best place I know. In June and July, nights are very short here, so nocturnal animals can often be seen at twilight hours. Still, midnight is the best time to look for lynxes.


Canadian lynx, Wood Buffalo Nat. Park, Canada.

Habitat of the last lynx population in
Moscow area, Dubna River, Russia.

European lynx (F. lynx lynx) is now extremely rare in Europe. It is still hunted in many areas, and the last surviving animals are so shy that seeing them is almost impossible. It took me two winters of tracking to catch my first glimpse of lynx. For better chances, visit Central Forest Reserve in westernmost Russia. Bielovezhski forest on Belorussia/Poland border and Pechoro-Ilychskii Reserve in the Urals are also good places to try.

The largest lynx, Siberian lynx F. l. wrangeli, is still relatively common in parts of Yakutia. Try looking for it from Kolyma Highway in winter, better next year after solar activity maximum (there are often Arctic hare outbreaks in such years). You can sometimes see it from the highway, but you chances will be better if you hike 10-20 km away from any road. Look for its tracks in the areas with lots of hares (usually along the edges of riparian forests).

Lynx, Handyga, Yakutia.

Caucasian wild cat, Krasnaya Polyana, Russia.

Pallas' cat, Moscow Zoo
(photographed in captivity).

Lynx tracks, Polar Urals, Russia.

Baxan river, Balkaria.

European wild cat (F. silvestris silvestris) is now declining or extinct in most parts of its range. It is, however, still common in subtropical forests above Black Sea coast between Anapa, Russia, and Sukhumi, Abkhazia. Roads leading to Ritza lake in Abkhazia and Terskol ski resorts in Balkaria are also good locations. Wild cats sometimes patrol these roads just before dawn. Caucasus Nature Reserve is another good place to look for Caucasian wild cats (F. s. caucasia) at lower elevations, and for rare Caucasian lynx (F. l. dinnikii) in coniferous forests. Try audio tapes with mating calls of bobcat or Canadian lynx - they might also attract Eurasian lynxes. Or probably not: calls of wild cats differ between species as much as those of songbirds.


Scottish cat, Loch Tay, Scotland.

A lot of people try to see wild cats in Scotland. Scottish wild cat (F. s. grampia) is rare and local, but not terribly shy. This one was so tame, I still suspect that it had been somehow habituated to people. But it was seen reasonably far from any settlements.

Scottish cat, Loch Tay, Scotland.

1 - Asian wild cat, 2 - European wild cat (from: Vladimir Dinets, Eugene Rotshild. Mammals of Russia. ABF, 1998).

Part Three

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