Pallas' cat CAT NEWS

Pallas's cat Status Review & Conservation Strategy, 2019

Habitat degradation and fragmentation, largely caused by increasing livestock numbers, conversion of steppe to arable land, infrastructure development, and resource extraction, are generally considered the main threats to Pallas’s cats Otocolobus manul across its range. In addition, predation by domestic dogs, accidental capture when hunting/trapping other animals, decreasing prey numbers and poisoning can seriously impact local populations. We expect the impact of climate change and disease to increase in the near future, but the potential extent and severity of these threats are currently poorly understood and vary considerably between countries and regions. Even though our understanding of the basic ecology and distribution of Pallas’s cat has increased during the last decade, a clearer scientific understanding is required to support the species conservation. Additional ecological research is critical, but our inability to efficiently monitor the species across its vast range and reliably detect population trends and distributional changes is arguably the most important gap in our understanding.

Nature Conservation Research. Заповедная наука, 2017

The Pallas’s cat, or Manul, Otocolobus manul, belongs to the small felines. In Russia this species is located at the northern periphery of its range. Potential habitats of this species within its Russian range’s part have been highlighted on the base of remote sensing data, topographic maps and digital cartographic models. Maps of the Pallas’s cat’s records in Russia have been compiled using literature data, authors’ own data and information provided by contributors of the online database «Small Wild Сats of Eurasia». We have shown the representation of potential habitats of the Pallas’s cat and its actual registrations within Protected Areas of Russia. The total area of potential habitats for this species in Russia is assessed as 145,150 km2. The presence of Manul is confirmed for five regions of Russia: Republic of Altai, Republic of Tyva, Republic of Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Trans-Baikal Krai. The registration of the species’ records mainly corresponds to the location of its potential habitats. The main categories of both federal and regional Russian Protected Areas cover 10.8% (13.5% taken with the buffer zones) of the total area of potential habitats for the Pallas’s cat. The significance of each Protected Area for Manul conservation has been considered in detail. We have discussed whether the representativeness of the existing Protected Areas is sufficient for conservation of this species. We have identified the main territorial gaps that reduce the Pallas’s cat protection in some parts of the Russian range.

Nature Conservation Research, 2017

Mammalia, 2021

Knowledge about the current distribution of threatened and/or understudied species is a fundamental component of conservation biology. Mapping species distributions based on recent known occurrences is particularly important for those that are rare or declining. Too often, cryptic species go undetected throughout parts of their range, whereas others just receive less research attention. We used contemporary presence data for the Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), a small cryptic felid, to characterize potential rangewide and regional habitat for the species and identify those abiotic and biotic variables most influencing its distribution. Several regions lacking contemporary occurrence records contain potential habitat for Pallas’s cats, including the Koh-i-Baba Mountains of Afghanistan, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, steppes of Inner Mongolia, Kunlun Mountains of China, and Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and China. Some of these areas have not been included in prior rangewide distribution assessments. The distribution of pikas (Ochotona spp.), small mammals that likely represent a critical prey species everywhere they are sympatric, was the most important factor affecting the Pallas’s cat’s distribution. This suggests Pallas’s cats may be prey specialists, and that pika presence and habitat are critical considerations for future Pallas’s cat surveys and in the development of regional conservation actions.

2014

This is a short summary of our records of Asian Golden Cat in Cambodia's Virachey NP. We camera-trapped in two study zones between January 2014 and January 2017 and obtained images of a breeding population of golden cat, a species that is in decline throughout its range in Asia.

2014