The pampas cat is one of the smallest of the wild Felidae. It generally is no larger then your average
domestic house cat. Its back has a dusky gray color with darker undershadings. The long guard hairs
are silver tipped giving the pampas cat a "frosted" appearance. Down its sides and into its underbelly
area, the pelage shades turn an orangy brown. The legs and tail have rings of a darker brown encircling
them. They usually have some white markings on their face and chest area.
After about 75 days
of gestation, the female will give birth to a litter of 2 to 4 kittens. They will stay with their mother
until about one year of age. Sexual maturity for the female comes at about one year of age, for the
male it is about 18 months of age. In the wild, pampas cats can live to be about 15 years old. In captivity,
to about 20 years of age.
The pampas cat is strongly associated with grass and shrub habitats.
In addition to the pampas grassland formations for which it is named, it also occurs throughout the
cerrado (open wood, shrub and grass complexes) of central Brazil. The pampas cat also occurs in several
forest types, typically open woodland or scrub thicket, but also the belt of "yungas" cloud forest that
runs along the eastern slope of the Andes. It is absent only from lowland rainforest, both tropical
and temperate. At the southern extent of its range, it occurs in the cold semi-arid desert of Patagonia.
In Uruguay, it is found in low-lying swampy areas with clumps of long esparto grass, and also occurs
around the Pantanal floodplains. It occurs on both the eastern and western slopes of the Andes, with
an elevational range from 100 up to over 5,000 m, where it possibly coexists with the Andean mountain
cat.
The pampas cat is widely distributed, tolerant of altered habitat (including
secondary growth, forest plantation, and the fringes of agricultural and settled areas). International
trade in its pelt ceased in 1987. In the Paraguayan Chaco, it has been described as less common than
the Geoffroys cat. Although pronounced extinct in Uruguay over 30 years ago, it probably still exists,
but very sparsely due to draining of wetlands for ranching and agriculture. Although it appears to have
a wide range in Brazil (the cerrado is Brazils second largest habitat type after tropical rainforest),
records are scarce and the species is generally considered rare. The pampas cats of Chile are the most
endangered group due to small geographic range.
The Pampas cat is not considered
to be endangered in any of the areas it inhabits. It is, however, protected in most of them and hunting
is regulated. The pampas region of Argentina and Uruguay has been heavily settled and grazed relative
to other regions, and the status of the species should be investigated here. The pampas cats of Argentina
were formerly hunted in large numbers for the fur trade -- 78,000 skins were exported from 1976 -1979
-- but international trade has ceased following a last shipment of 10,000 pelts exported in 1987 to clear
old stocks. It is reported that the pampas cat is known to raid chicken houses occasionally.
