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| GEOFFROY'S
CAT - KEY FACTS |
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| Scientific Name: Oncifelis geoffroyi |
Size: Head and body 16.5-26 inches
(42-66cm);
tail 9.5-14 inches (24-36cm) |
| Weight: 4.5-9 pounds (2-4kg) |
| Distribution: South America from Bolivia
and Southern Brazil to Paraguay, Uruguay, Chilie and Argentina |
| Habitat: Scrubby woodland, open bush,
rocky terrain, and riverine forest. |
| Diet: Small mammals, birds and fish. |
| Reproduction: 2 or 3 young are born
after a gestation period of about 71 days. |
| Status: Near
Threatened |
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Also known in the past as the Spotted
Tiger-cat. Referred to locally as the Gato Montes. It was named after the French
naturalist Geoffroy St. Hilaire. A small, spotted South American cat, it is about
the same size as a large domestic cat, but with a slightly shorter tail and a
slightly longer head. The dark spots are small and lack pale interiors. On the
back of each ear there is an "eye-spot" with a black ring around a white
center.
Active primarily at night, the Geoffroy's cat hunts both on the ground and |
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in
trees. It can climb and swim well, and preys on small mammals such as rats, mice,
guinea pigs and agouti, as well as birds. It is believed to sleep in trees, and
has been observed to act like a miniature jaguar, lying in ambush in the branches
of a tree and then leaping down onto its prey. This is the "cooler"
of the South American cats, preferring the less tropical, more temperate regions
of the continent, where it inhabits broken woodland rather than dense forest.
The home range of a female that was tracked in the wild, using a radio-collar,
proved to be 1.1 square miles (2.8 sq km).
Geoffroy's Cat has suffered more than most at the hands of the furtrappers. To
give one example, it is recorded that in the three years between 1976 and 1979,
Argentina alone exported no fewer than 340,000 pelts of this species. In one year,
Paraquay exported 78,000 skins. Initially it was the Ocelot and the Margay that
the trappers favored, but as these became overhunted, they then turned their lethal
attention more and more to Geoffroy's Cat. |
| GEOFFROY'S
CAT PHOTOS |
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