This is the only photo I kept from the slide film I shot around 1998 of the first leopard cats I saw. It was one of a pair at San Antonio Zoo. Both cats had the same pelage so I am sure they were the same subspecies (assuming they were a purebred subspecies). Considering the recent posts of Palawan leopard cats at Exmoor I am wondering if that is what this could be? I suppose it might also be Amur leopard cat. Sorry I do not have a profile shot to show the spots better.
What do the experts think? TEA LOVING DAVE I am looking at you!
It certainly looks a *lot* like a Palawan Leopard Cat, although I am unsure how readily native taxa could have been exported from the Philippines in the mid-1990s. However, despite these concerns I do not think it could easily be any other subspecies; the Palawan looks very different from the majority of Leopard Cat subspecies, and the taxon which resembles it most closely - the Amur Leopard Cat you cite as an alternate possibility - is much more robust and has a somewhat different facial "jizz".
The other possibility, which might account for the difference in facial structure and overall build, is that this *might* be a hybrid between the Amur and one of the other taxa; this is just a guess however, as I've never actually seen images of what such a hybrid might look like.
So overall, although I can't account for how San Antonio obtained the taxon, I think it's a reasonable assumption that this is a Palawan Leopard Cat, as on the balance of the thing I think it is unlikely that a hybrid of two mainland forms would so closely resemble a specialised island form.
It seems like a subspecies north of Qinling mountain of China, what I mean is, any subspecies in north China, amur region or Korea is possible. And it is also similiar to the Palawan leopard cat.
As noted above, although the colour of the pelage *is* akin to the Amur Leopard Cat and neighbouring subspecies, I suspect these individuals are much too gracile to belong to this taxon compare the original image to the following photographs I took of an Amur Cat in 2012:
As noted above, although the colour of the pelage *is* akin to the Amur Leopard Cat and neighbouring subspecies, I suspect these individuals are much too gracile to belong to this taxon compare the original image to the following photographs I took of an Amur Cat in 2012:
