Feline Species
There are 36 species of wild cats. In early March 1996 the Felid TAG (Taxonomic
Advisory Group) had a conference. At this meeting a revised felid taxonomy
was officially agreed to. As you may have noticed in the past, many different
books gave different taxonomies - for example, the snow leopard being in
'panthera' or 'uncia', all small cats being 'felis' vs many different small cat
genera, etc.
The new taxonomy agreed to basically divides the former Felis and Panthera groups
into 13 and 4 genera respectively, for a total of 18 genera (13 in the Felidae
subfamily, 4 in the Pantherinae subfamily, and 1 in the Acinonychinae subfamily).
There are still 36 species (the Iriomote cat is officially a subspecies of
Leopard cat, and the Canadian, Eurasian, and Iberian Lynxes are officially
different species, not subspecies). Most species are further divided into
subspecies, based on physical distinction and/or geographic separation. I have
only gone into detail about the leopard subspecies, as these groupings are fairly
well agreed upon. Most cat species' subspeciation is a topic of debate.
Separate pages for some of the species below describes their IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List status. The Red List takes into account overall world-wide populations, so even if a cat is endangered in one country or state,
as a species it may not be listed as endangered. The six categories are:
Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern,
and Data Deficient. (Information taken from the Autumn 1995 Cat News, a
publication of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group).
Wild Cat Species (alphabetical)
* African golden cat (Profelis aurata)
* Andean mountain cat (Oreailurus jacobita)
* Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii)
* Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes)
* Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
* Bornean bay cat (Catopuma badia)
* Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis)
* Caracal (Caracal caracal)
* Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
* Chinese mountain cat (Felis bieti)
* Clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)
* Cougar (Puma concolor)
* Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx)
* Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)
* Flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps)
* Geoffroys cat (Oncifelis geoffroyi)
* Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus)
* Jaguar (Panthera onca)
* Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouarundi)
* Jungle cat (Felis chaus)
* Kodkod (Oncifelis guigna)
* Leopard (Panthera pardus)
* Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)
* Lion (Panthera leo)
* Marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata)
* Margay (Leopardus wiedii)
* Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis)
* Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus)
* Pampas cat (Oncifelis colocolo)
* Pallas cat (Otocolobus manul)
* Rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus)
* Sand cat (Felis margarita)
* Serval (Leptailurus serval)
* Snow leopard (Uncia uncia)
* Tiger (Panthera tigris)
* Wildcat (Felis silvestris)
Wild Cat Species (taxonomy)
Family Felidae (G. Fischer, 1817).
Subfamily Acinonychinae (Pocock, 1917).
Acinonyx (Brookes, 1828).
- jubatus (Schreber, 1776): Cheetah.
Subfamily Felinae (Fischer, 1817).
Caracal
- caracal (Schreber, 1776): Caracal.
Catopuma (Severtzov, 1858).
- badia (Gray, 1874). Bay cat
- temmincki (Vigors and Horsfield, 1827). Asiatic golden cat
Felis
- bieti (MilneEdwards, 1892): Chinese desert cat.
- chaus (Schreber, 1777): Jungle cat.
- margarita (Loche, 1858): Sandcat.
- nigripes (Burchell, 1824). Black-footed cat
- silvestris (Schreber, 1775): Wildcat of Africa and Eurasia - subspecies lybica, gordonii, etc..
Herpailurus
- yaguarondi (Lacepede, 1809): Jaguarundi.
Leopardus (Gray, 1842).
- pardalis (Linnaeus, 1758): Ocelot.
- tigrinus (Schreber, 1775): Oncilla, Little tiger cat.
- wiedi (Schinz, 1821): Margay.
Leptailurus (Severtzov, 1858).
- serval (Schreber, 1776): Serval.
Lynx (Kerr, 1792).
- canadensis (Kerr, 1792): Canada lynx.
- lynx (Linneaus, 1758): Eurasian lynx.
- pardinus (Temminck, 1824): Iberian lynx.
- rufus (Schreber, 1776): Bobcat.
Oncifelis (Severtzov, 1858).
- colocolo (Molina, 1782): Pampas cat.
- geoffroyi (d'Orbigny and Gervais, 1844): Geoffroy's cat.
- guigna (Molina, 1782): Kodkod.
Oreailurus (Cabrera, 1940).
- jacobita (Cornalia, 1865): Andean mountain cat.
Otocolobus (Brandt, 1842).
- manul (Pallas, 1776): Manul/Pallas's cat.
Prionailurus (Severtzov, 1858).
- bengalensis (Kerr, 1792): Leopard cat.
- planiceps (Vigors and Horsfield, 1827): Flat-headed cat.
- rubiginosus (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1831): Rusty-spotted cat.
- viverrinus (Bennett, 1833): Fishing cat.
Profelis (Severtzov 1858).
- aurata (Temminck, 1827): African golden cat.
Puma (Jardine, 1834).
- concolor (Linnaeus 1771): Puma, Cougar, Mountain lion.
Subfamily Pantherinae (Pocock 1917).
Neofelis (Gray, 1867).
nebulosa (Griffith, 1821): Clouded leopard.
Panthera (Oken, 1816).
- leo (Linneaus, 1758): Lion.
- onca (Linneaus, 1758): Jaguar.
- pardus (Linneaus, 1758): Leopard.
- tigris (Linneaus, 1758): Tiger.
Pardofelis (Severtzov, 1858).
- marmorata (Martin, 1837): Marbled cat.
Uncia (Gray 1854).
- uncia (Schreber, 1758): Snow leopard.
Wozencraft, W.C. 1993. Order Carnivora: Family Felidae. In Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (2nd edition), eds Wilson, D.E. and D.M. Reeder. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, London.
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