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Visayan leopard cat

Sunda leopard cat population in the Philippines

Summary

Sunda leopard cat population in the Philippines

The Visayan leopard cat, known locally as maral, is a Sunda leopard cat (Prionailurus javanensis sumatranus) population in the Philippine Islands of Negros, Cebu and Panay. It has been listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 2008 under its former scientific name P. bengalensis rabori as its range is estimated to be less than 20000 km2, and the population was thought to be decreasing.

Taxonomy

Prionailurus bengalensis rabori was proposed in 1997 by anthropologist Colin Groves based on morphological analysis of a skin and skull. He considered it a leopard cat subspecies.

Results of phylogeographic research show that Sunda leopard cats from Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippine islands are genetically very similar. The Sunda leopard cat probably reached the Philippine islands from Borneo after the eruption of Toba Volcano during the late Pleistocene glaciation. It has therefore been subsumed to P. javanensis sumatranus in 2017.

Characteristics

The fur of the Visayan leopard cat is dark ochre to buffy fawn with large and dark spots. Its skull is a little narrower than that of the Sumatran leopard cat and Bornean leopard cat.

Distribution and habitat

The Visayan leopard cat is endemic to the Philippine islands of Panay and Negros where it inhabits remnant forest fragments. In Cebu, it has also been recorded in sugarcane farms.

In captivity

Five Visayan leopard cats are housed at the Mariit Wildlife and Conservation Park at the West Visayas State University campus in Lambunao, Iloilo.

References

References

  1. (2011). "Feeding habits of Visayan leopard cats (''Prionailurus bengalensis rabori'') in sugarcane fields of Negros Occidental, Philippines". Asia Life Sciences.
  2. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group". Cat News.
  3. Lorica, R.. (2008). "''Prionailurus bengalensis ssp. rabori''".
  4. Groves, C. P.. (1997). "Leopard-cats, ''Prionailurus bengalensis'' (Carnivora: Felidae) from Indonesia and the Philippines, with the description of two new species". Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde.
  5. Patel, R.P.. (2017). "Genetic structure and phylogeography of the leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') inferred from mitochondrial genomes". Journal of Heredity.
  6. (2013). "Survival of a native mammalian carnivore, the leopard cat ''Prionailurus bengalensis'' Kerr, 1792 (Carnivora: Felidae), in an agricultural landscape on an oceanic Philippine island". Journal of Threatened Taxa.
  7. Santiagudo, E. R. S.. (2019). "Home of endangered Visayan species struggles with limited funding".
  8. Murga, A. l. (2019). "A Philippine conservation park juggles funding needs with animal welfare".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

prionailurus mammals-described-in-1997 mammals-of-the-philippines endemic-fauna-of-the-philippines fauna-of-the-visayas fauna-of-panay fauna-of-negros-island fauna-of-cebu subspecies taxa-named-by-colin-groves
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