Yet another species of small carnivore discovered in plain sight....

TeaLovingDave

TeaLovingDave

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Research has indicated that the population of oncilla living on the Atlantic coast of Brazil merits specific status, and as such the species Leopardus guttulus has now been coined.

Scientists discover new cat species roaming Brazil

This is likely to be only the first of a few splits of L.tigrinus, as there have been whisperings for some years now that genetic and behavioural research was indicating the oncilla represented at least 3 or 4 species.
 
A good proportion of the individuals in Europe have not been tested, but a look on ZTL suggests a few places - including Dortmund, Parc Des Felins and possibly Hamerton - hold this species, not Oncilla!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
A good proportion of the individuals in Europe have not been tested, but a look on ZTL suggests a few places - including Dortmund, Parc Des Felins and possibly Hamerton - hold this species, not Oncilla!
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Very interesting news - myself and thylo were wondering how this would affect the current population.
 
hehe imagine how happy you Brits would be if Hamerton's 2.1 turned out to be 1.0 Oncilla, 1.1 L. guttulus:p

~Thylo:cool:
 
See, this is the interesting point; Hamerton's animals came from Dortmund in 2005, and at that time both collections held untested - and thus presumably non-ssp level - oncilla. However, last year Dortmund imported 4 individuals of what was, at the time, believed to be Leopardus tigrinus guttulus, which joined the individuals they already held. This means that depending on the origin of their previous animals, Dortmund may well hold a combination of the two species.

The dates would imply that the 2,1 at Hamerton are all the same taxon, whatever they are - however I believe ZTL is out of date for the collection, as Hamerton recieved a new import of blood for the species last year. These individuals, to my knowledge, are held in the still-closed small carnivore complex. Depending on the origin of *these* animals, which were imported at the same time as the Dortmund import, this could mean that Hamerton has oncilla onshow and "Guttulus cat" offshow.
 
Intrestind suff and nice to know obvesly already a small captive population exist. Hopefully they are kept seperated from the "normal" oncilla's and we don't end-up with just another mixed-up felidae ( like tigers, lions, leopards.....) !
 
vogelcommando said:
Intrestind suff and nice to know obvesly already a small captive population exist. Hopefully they are kept seperated from the "normal" oncilla's and we don't end-up with just another mixed-up felidae ( like tigers, lions, leopards.....) !
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Well the news has been posted on Hamerton's Facebook page and they've shown interest in it so now at least one zoo (and one with possibly both species) is aware of it. Hopefully we'll end up with populations of both soon enough.

~Thylo:cool:
 
vogelcommando said:
Intrestind suff and nice to know obvesly already a small captive population exist. Hopefully they are kept seperated from the "normal" oncilla's and we don't end-up with just another mixed-up felidae ( like tigers, lions, leopards.....) !
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The potential ones at Hamerton are offshow, but the ones at Dortmund are - as far as I know - mixed with the animals they had previously, as they were imported to bring fresh blood into Europe.

Of course, if the population already in Europe came from the same sources as the recent imports we could find ourselves in the strange situation of having *no* oncilla in Europe after all!
 
A reply to my enquiries from Hamerton Zoo :)

Having read the article and spoken to the director we believe we have just the one species - leopardus tigrinus
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This is pretty useful, as it would tend to confirm that the population in Europe previously was indeed tigrinus to some extent and thus that *both* species are found in Europe.
 
This is the same researcher (I think) who said pampas cat should be three species. That has now been refuted and they are back to one. I cannot imagine this situation is any different. One species, but perhaps different subspecies.
 
Arizona Docent said:
This is the same researcher (I think) who said pampas cat should be three species. That has now been refuted and they are back to one. I cannot imagine this situation is any different. One species, but perhaps different subspecies.
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I think the major difference here is that the cat in question has been thought to be a unique species for some time now.

Also, Mr. A Docent, whether you hold this animal to be a separate species or a subspecies, this would have been the one you saw at Parc des Felins! So congrats!:p

~Thylo:cool:
 
Arizona Docent said:
This is the same researcher (I think) who said pampas cat should be three species. That has now been refuted and they are back to one. I cannot imagine this situation is any different. One species, but perhaps different subspecies.
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They have always been classed as different subspecies, incidentally -Leopardus tigrinus guttulus has merely been upgraded to specific status.

Also, as ThylacineAlive has noted, other researchers have been investigating the case for L.t.guttulus and L.t.oncilla being separated from the nominate for some time.

--edit--

The pampas cat split was the work of Rosa Garcia-Perea, not the authors of this study, who are Eduardo Eizirik and Tatiane Trigo.
 
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