Southern Tiger Cat
Leopardus guttulus
A. Sliwa
Description
The tiger cats (Leopardus tigrinus/Leopardus guttulus) are part of the ocelot lineage, one of the youngest of all cat lineages. Their genetics are complex. They were recently acknowledged as two distinct species, given their genetic differentiation. However, it is likely that the current Central American subspecies, Leopardus tigrinus oncilla, is a distinct species too. Populations in Costa Rican population and Central and Southern Brazil (now called Leopardus guttulus) have been isolated for approximately 3.7 million years. These two populations show a high level of divergence comparable to the one between full species of the Leopardus genus and both populations have a low genetic diversity. To add more genetic complexity for the tiger cat species, there has been ancient historic hybridization between the pampas cat (L. colocola) and L. tigrinus, intense hybridisation with margays (L. wiedii) and ocelots (L. pardalis) in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina, and ongoing bi-directional hybridization between L. guttulus with the Geoffroy's cat (L. geoffroyi). However, there has been no indication of mixing whatsoever between the two former single species. In other words, populations of tiger cats mixed with other species but not between themselves! The Southern tiger cat is recognised as a monotypic species.
The tiger cats are small cats with a slender body, proportioned like a slender house cat with body weight ranging from 1.8 kg to 3.5 kg. Both species present similar measurements. Males are consistently slightly larger than females. At first glance, the tiger cat species seem to be cryptic. They do show some subtle differentiation in base colour, spot pattern, and morphology, which are not easy to tell apart and shows slight regional variation within the northern species, too. Northern tiger cats from the western part of their range have a darker base colour varying from dark orange brown to a brown tinged with yellow or grey. Their rosettes are medium-sized and tend to form small- to medium-sized oblique bands arranged in scapular inguinal direction. Meanwhile, the northern tiger cats from eastern South America have a lighter base colour with a spectrum from light yellow- brown to pale yellow and grey- yellow. Their rosettes are smaller, with usually narrow and discontinuous rims and do not coalesce into oblique bands. The base colour of southern tiger cats (L. guttulus) ranges from dark yellow- brown to ochraceous buff. Their rosettes have thicker, continuous rims, rarely coalescing into smaller oblique bands. The northern tiger cat has a lighter built, with a slender body, legs and tail. The southern tiger cat, on the other hand, tends to look slightly bulkier, with a thicker tail and smaller rounder ears. Nevertheless, individuals of both species can diverge from these norms. The paler belly fur is covered with dark spots. The large ears of both species have a black backside with a central white spot. The southern tiger cat’s tail has seven to thirteen irregular, thin rings and a black tip. The northern tiger cat has a less conspicuously, thinly ringed tail. In both species, the tail measures about 60% of the head and body length. Both tiger cats look very similar to the margay (L. wiedii), making it difficult to distinguish the three. However, the tiger cats’ fur is not as thick, its patterns tend to be less dark and blotchy, with abundant solid dot-like spots and open rosettes, which tend to be smaller and more numerous. The species is more slender, its paws are proportional to its size and its tail is shorter than the margay’s tail. In all tiger cats the hair on the nape slants backwards, unlike the ocelot and margay, but similar to Geoffroy’s cat. The southern tiger cat looks similar to Geoffroy’s cat, with whom it hybridizes. It differs by being smaller, without a bulky head and without the typical paired dots that usually do not form rosettes in the latter.
Weight
1.8 -3.5 kg
Body Length
38 - 59 cm
Tail Length
20 -42 cm
Longevity
15-21 years
Litter Size
1 - 4 kittens/ avg: 1
P. Meier
Status and Distribution
The southern tiger cat is classified as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, as well as in the National Red List of Brazil. In the state of Bahia, Brazil, it is listed as Endangered. The population has declined by almost 50% over 8 years has been observed in Santa Catarina state, Brazil, one of the most important areas for the conservation of the species. This reduction may have been caused by prey reduction. The southern tiger cat has also declined in other areas by more than 50%. Its global population is estimated at 6,047 mature individuals.
Southern tiger cat population densities vary but tend to be lower than expected for a cat species of this size, throughout most of its range. Given its body size, expected density would be 91 individuals per 100 km². Meanwhile, southern tiger cat occurs at densities typically of 1–5 per 100 km². In protected areas it is very rare, most probably due to the negative impact of the ocelot. Only in a few areas, where ocelots are absent or rare, it reaches densities of 15–25 per 100 km².
The southern tiger cat ranges from Central to southern Brazil, eastern Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina. The species is absent from the Paraguayan Chaco. The population in Bolivia would probably be assigned to L. tigrinus. The northern limits of its geographic range are still unclear. It reaches Central Brazil in the states of Minas Gerais, Goiás and the Atlantic Forest of central-south Bahia in the northeast region. Whether it overlaps with Leopardus tigrinus and to what extent is still not known.
Habitat
The southern tiger cat inhabits a variety of habitats, from dense tropical and subtropical rainforests, deciduous/semi-deciduous, and mixed pine forests, to the open savannah, and coastal vegetation, both pristine and disturbed. A habitat model for Misiones, Argentina, has shown southern tiger cats to be mostly associated with native Atlantic Forest. In the Pantanal (wet/swampy savannah), it is very rare and has been recorded only in the dry savannas, not in the marshy areas. The southern tiger cat can also inhabit disturbed vegetation and is also found in abandoned Eucalyptus plantations. Its occurrence near agricultural fields is nevertheless limited by the presence of natural cover. Thus, in mosaics of forest or savannah, and small-scale agriculture, both telemetry information and scat analysis, indicate that it uses patches of natural vegetation and does not venture deep into the agricultural areas per se, using only their borders. In such areas rodent abundance can be elevated. Known altitudinal range of the southern tiger cat is below 2,000 m.
P. Meier
Ecology and Behaviour
The southern tiger cat is a solitary felid. It is active predominantly at night but can also be cathemeral or almost completely diurnal. An increase in diurnal activity is suggested to be a strategy to avoid predation by the larger sympatric ocelot. In areas where ocelots occur, both tiger cats, as well as the margay and jaguarundi tend to be rare because of potential intra-guild predation/competition. This negative impact of the ocelot on smaller cat species is called the “ocelot effect”. In Misiones, Argentina, the negative impact of the “ocelot effect” grew with increasing human disturbance. Thus, tiger cat numbers are negatively impacted by the larger ocelot through interspecific killing due to potential for competition. On the other hand, tiger cat numbers are not affected by those of the margay and jaguarundi, which are potentially more direct competitors than the much larger ocelot.
Tiger cats are excellent climbers but spend most of their time on the ground as most of its prey is terrestrial. Small prey is killed with a bite to the neck, but larger prey tends to be attacked initially from behind. Feeding starts at the head or neck. When threatened tiger cats show aggressive behaviour with arched back and raised hair, besides showing the teeth and producing a “whistling-spitting” vocalization. It seems that both species of tiger cats present very similar habits, which makes it hard to set them apart ecologically.
Home ranges of the tiger cats are 2.5 times larger than they would be expected, based on the cat’s body size. This may be another consequence of avoiding larger potential felid predators. Very few studies on home ranges have been conducted. Known home ranges for the southern tiger cat range from 2 to 25 km². Female ranges are smaller than the ones of males.
The following information about reproduction found in the literature stems from captive individuals and was published before the splitting of L. tigrinus and L. guttulus. Thus it cannot be attributed with certainty to one or the other species and is presented identically for both: Very little information about the tiger cat’s reproduction is available. Reproduction occurs year-round but could show different peaks in different areas. Oestrus lasts on average for 2.5 (1–6) days, and the mean interoestrous interval is 14.2 (10–26) days. The gestation period lasts for 71–78 days, after which 1–4 cubs are born, (average 1.12). The eyes are open at 8–17 days. Weaning occurs at two to three months and young attain adult body size at 11 months of age. However, sexual maturity is achieved only at about 2–2.5 years, which is rather very late for a felid of this size. The lifetime number of young potentially produced by a seven-year-old female tiger cat in the wild is generally up to five. This shows a very low reproductive potential, considering its small size and in comparison, to other felids from other continents.
Prey
The southern tiger cat is a generalist predator. It preys mainly on small vertebrates (weighing less than 100 g) like mice, shrews, marsupials, birds and lizards. However, occasionally larger prey (0.7–1.5 kg, or larger than 1.5 kg) like small primates, agoutis and whistling-ducks are also taken. Diet studies in the Brazilian states of Espírito Santo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo, as well as in Misiones, Argentina, all found small mammals forming the main part of the diet (43–85%, mainly rodents). Birds and reptiles usually were the second- and third-most common items in the diet, with either dominating. In Misiones, Argentina, 64% of the biomass consumed consisted of prey items weighing less than 100 g, 29% of prey items between 100 and 1,000 g, and 7% of prey items weighing more than 1,000 g. Mean prey mass from various studies tends to be 145 g. Insects and plant matter are also occasionally found in tiger cat's scats. In fact, the stomach content of one road killed individual in Rio Grande do Sul exclusively contained butterflies. However, these items do not contribute to the energy intake significantly. During observations in north-eastern Argentina of a nest of lineated woodpeckers, which was 7.7 m up from the ground on an isolated snag, a southern tiger cat was encountered high up on the tree. Predation of the nestlings by the southern tiger cat was not directly observed but inferred from the dead nestlings that were subsequently found.
M. Pittet
Main Threats
The main threat to the southern tiger cat is habitat loss and fragmentation due to deforestation. This felid inhabits Brazil’s most threatened biomes, the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado. The first is highly fragmented and has lost more than 92% of its natural cover, while in the latter the loss was more than 55%, and increasing due to increasing cereal crop production. The tiger cat shows very low densities in protected areas, where it is found, and populations are severely fragmented, making it even more vulnerable to habitat conversion. Further threats are retaliatory killing due to poultry depredation and road mortality.
Free-ranging domestic dogs can occur even in protected areas and pose further threats to the southern tiger cats. They are predatory competitors and may even predate directly on the northern tiger cat. On the other hand, domestic dogs, as well as domestic cats, are disease vectors e.g. for Parvovirus and Canine Distemper Virus. However, the impact of the diseases on southern tiger cat populations is yet unknown.
Although the international trade in furs has declined dramatically, illegal hunting and capturing still takes place, mostly for the local market or for the pet trade. Historical trade on tiger cats (which would include both species) from 1976 to 1985 consisted of an astonishing 352,508 skins, which would represent about 28% of all trade in Neotropical felids during this period, second only to Geoffroy’s cat.
Models predict a 54.1% range reduction as a result of climate change by 2050 for the southern tiger cat.
Another problem is the lack of knowledge of this cat species. Very little information is available about the southern tiger cat’s ecology and status, making it difficult to assess threats and their impact.
Conservation Efforts and Protection Status
Since the southern tiger cat’s separation from Leopardus tigrinus, its inclusion on CITES Appendix I needs to be reaffirmed. It is protected over part of its range. Hunting is prohibited in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
As the southern tiger cat does not occur in high numbers anywhere and ocelots are the dominant and most abundant felid in most protected areas, the southern tiger cat is probably more common outside protected areas, where habitats are undergoing high rates of destruction and/or are highly fragmented. Thus, conservation efforts should be focused on the areas outside protected areas. The state of Santa Catarina in Brazil has been considered to harbour the best and likely most viable population of the southern tiger cat, given the extent of its remaining Atlantic Forest and the cat’s presence in decent numbers in local Conservation Units, mostly due to the absence of ocelots. Nevertheless, no conservation units within the southern tiger cat’s range in Brazil are expected to include 500 individuals, with most expected to sustain far less than 200.
Further research on the ecology, natural history and threats is urgently needed for both species of tiger cats. To monitor and understand the extent of hybridization with Geoffroy’s cat is another research priority.
