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Project Noah Nature School
Leopardus pardalis
This is a small Felidae from Center and South America. The pictures belong to an Amazon Tigrillo, from the locality of Tena (low Amazon basin). It is, according to The red book of the mammals of Ecuador, one of the rarest mammals in Central and South America.
Temperate and Tropical rainforest. It has been reported at the beginning of the last century in the high paramos of Mojanda, but their true distribution is still unknown.
Thanks everyone ... and yes, I think they have to be separated in two different spottings.
Wonderful spotting! As you saw the cats in a rescue facility, you could add this spotting to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehab mission: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/9974... I can't tell from these photos if they are different species but some of the differences are: the oncilla has a narrower muzzle than an ocelot, it is smaller and more slender, the fur doesn't turn forward in the nape region as it does in the ocelot
I just love that picture, like we call them in Costa Rica... "El tigre" very much different than the Ocelot that is gorgeous also. Are they in the endangered species?
I agree with Livan as to the first picture looking like an Ocelot and the second looking like Oncilla. The facial markings are making me think that, but I am also by no means an expert either! Beautiful cats and picture though :)
Thank you LivanEscudero, I will try to do my best and share it with Noah !!!
Thanks Reza Hashemizadeh, Carol Snow Milne, Adrián Encontrado and Braulio Alejandro Rivas Tapia, I am glad you liked the pictures.
Wow Gustavo fascinating. Looking forward to some more Amazon spottings. By the way the pictures I directed you to, I just found those websites. Those pictures, yes, they are fantastic, but I didn't take them. I don't want to take any credit for them. Safe travels.
LivanEscudero, fantastic pictures !!! I hope I can take more pictures of the cats in 2 weeks from now. I will go to the Sumaco national Park in the Amazon, and will stay with the Kichua tribe for 3 days !!!
Unfortunately, I am not close to the rescue center. I am 12 hours from the rescue center now. But next time I go there, I will try to take more pictures.
Gustavo I'm by no means an expert or anything close. But to me they do look different. Are you still in the area? Can you visit them again? Maybe knowing all this you can look at them with fresh eyes and be able to tell. If at all possible some full body shots with background for scale may help a lot. Also apparently the length of the tail compared to the hind leg is telling.
By the way these are two beautiful pictures of whatever species of cat they are.
You see those 2 very thick black lines on the face an eye of pic 1 look very Ocelot to me. compare to this one:
http://brendin12.edublogs.org/2011/04/18...
Pic 2 has thin down curving line that stops from the eye and no second cheek line just a blotch and it has more of a house cat looking face, I think. see some Oncilla pics here:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/leopardus%2...
Also very hard to judge their sizes from these pictures. With Ocelot the larger, then Margay, and Oncilla the smalest.
Hello LivanEscudero. The pictures are not of the same individual, but according to the rescue center owner, they were rescued in the same place at the same time. Do you think they belong to different species ???
The Ocelot (L. pardalis) and the Oncilla or Tigrillo (L. tigrinus) are close relatives. (Also the Margay - L. wiedii) They all kind of look the same.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...
http://www.ecology.info/ecology-ocelot-m...
Now are we 100% these 2 pictures are of the same individual. Because to me pic 1 looks more like an Ocelot face and thick eye markings; but the second looks to have a different proportion to its face and the markings look different. I think the 2nd is a Tigrillo and the 1st an Ocelot.
Still lost ... Can anyone tell me a morphological difference that can lead me to a correct identification of it ???
What an awesome spotting of my favorite animal....Thank you for sharing !
the difference between them is that this is a ocelot and leopardus tigrinus is Oncilla
Hello sanmiggums. Can you please tell me what is the difference between Leopardus pardalis and Leopardus tigrinus ? I am a kind of lost in here.
Spotted on Apr 1, 2013
Submitted on Apr 1, 2013
