also known as: little tiger cat, little spotted cat, tigrillo, and tiger ocelot
With a silhouette
and footprint resembling a house cat, the oncilla is small, having an average weight of 2.5 kg, with
males slightly larger than females. The oncilla closely resembles the margay, and the two can be difficult
to distinguish in the field. The two cats are similarly marked, but the oncillas pattern of rosettes
tends to be less dark and blotchy than the margay's, its fur is not as thick, its body is more slender,
and its tail not as long. Melanistic individuals are occasionally reported. Prey consists of small
mammals (rodents and shrews), birds, small reptiles, and amphibians. Oncillas have been reported to
prey on small primates in Brazil.
After a gestation period of about 75-78
days, the female oncilla will give birth to a litter of one to three cubs with one as most common. Born
blind, the kittens eyes will open at approximately ten days of age. The kittens will be nursed until
about 12 weeks of age at which time they will begin an exclusive diet of prey items brought to them by
their mother. The kittens will stay with their mother until they are about one year of age. sexual
maturity for females occurs at about 12-15 months of age, and at 18-24 months for males. In captivity,
oncillas have been known to live up to 20 years. In the wild, they probably live until about 12 to 15
years of age.
The oncilla shows a strong preference for montane cloud forest, in that
it is found at higher elevations than the ocelot and margay. In eastern Brazil, it is present in the
subtropical forest highlands. There are also reports it has been found in early secondary forests and
abandoned eucalyptus plantations, in areas close to human settlement, and highly affected by deforestation
and fire. Oncillas have also been found in semi-arid thorny scrub in north-east Brazil and in dry deciduous
forest in northern Venezuela. To what degree the oncilla uses lowland moist forest is not clear, especially
within the Amazon basin. It has not been reported from this area.
the oncilla appears to have
a naturally disjunct distribution, although further research is necessary to confirm this. The northernmost
record is from northern Costa Rica, near the Tapantm Cloud Forest Faunal Refuge. It has been recorded
from northern Panama, but the remainder of the country appears to be a gap in the species' range. The
oncilla is probably found throughout Panama, as habitat there is suitable. There are only two museum
specimens for Ecuador and Peru. There are no museum records for Bolivia.
There is
little known about the population status of this species. This species has never been studied in the
wild, and there is little understanding of its habitat requirements, density, and coexistence with other
small cats. It has been trapped in large numbers for the fur trade -- in 1971, 28,000 pelts were counted
in Brazilian warehouses, and in 1983, 84,500 skins were exported from Paraguay --although it is likely
that other spotted cat pelts were mixed with oncilla. It is rarely seen by field biologists.
The oncilla is protected over part of its range with hunting prohibited in Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela. It has no legal protection
in Ecuador, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, or Peru.
It is difficult to assess threats to
the oncilla when so little is known about it. Coffee plantations are often established in cloud forest
habitat, but observations of it in deforested areas and eucalyptus monoculture on the outskirts of Sao
Paolo suggest tolerance of habitat alteration. Although international trade effectively ceased after
1985, 675 spotted cat skins, mainly oncilla, were seized in Brazil, but came from Paraguay. The age
of the pelts, however, was not ascertained.
