Southern Tiger Cat

About the Southern Tiger Cat

Leopardus guttulus, the southern tigrina or southern tiger cat, is a small wild cat species native to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Felis guttula was the scientific name used in 1872 by Reinhold Hensel when he described a tiger cat from the jungles of the Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.

It was long considered to be a subspecies of the oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus). It was recognized as a distinct species in 2013. It is closely related to Geoffroy's cat (L. geoffroyi), with which it reportedly interbreeds in southern Brazil.

The southern tigrina has a yellowish-ochre coat, patterned with open black rosettes. It is slightly darker than the oncilla, has a larger rosette pattern, and a slightly shorter tail. However, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between the two species by appearance alone, since more genetic variation tends to occur within each species, than between the two species. An adult southern tigrina weighs between 1.9 and 2.4 kg (4.2 and 5.3 lb).

The southern tigrina occurs from central to southern Brazil in Minas Gerais and Goiás states, in the Atlantic forest, eastern Paraguay and northeastern... Wikipedia →