Bengal tiger is a man eater

Bengal tiger - photo by The Eternity

The Bengal tiger is a man eater but not by choice. The Times newspaper reports a significant increase in the number of attacks by Bengal tigers on people living in the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh/India (the region straddles the countries) this year. There have been 2o people killed so far this year while 6 were killed for the whole of last year.

The reason is that Bangladesh is an overcrowded country and the area called the Sundarbans, a marshy area on the Ganges delta of some 3,700 square miles, is shrinking. Bangladesh is the size of England with more than twice the population and England. It is about the 4th most densely populated country in the world and certainly the most densely populated country in the world with significant wildlife including large animals.

Add to the already high density of the population, a shrinking landscape in the Ganges delta due to rising sea levels, silting up and floods and you force people and tiger together. The tiger has already unnaturally relocated to the delta because of lack of territory elsewhere. The tiger has adapted to living amongst a lot of water and learnt to fish and swim more than usual but reduction in space and prey means the tiger is forced to attack humans especially if the tiger is ill or finding it harder to cope than normal.

Tigers will naturally avoid humans for obvious reasons. But desperation forces a different strategy. The Bengal tiger is a man eater sometimes by force of necessity no more. Sometimes the Bangladesh people succeed in capturing and killing a tiger that encroaches into a village. If two are killed it represents 1% of the tiger population of Banglasdesh. Just 10 killed is 5% of the total in the country.

There are about 440 Bengal tigers living the Sundarbans of which an estimated 200-250 are in Bangladesh. Although it is hard to estimate accurateyly. In an estimate of tigers in India recently the numbers were found to be lower than previously thought.

They are all endangered as we know under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ (see IUCN Red List for cats). The World Wildlife Fund estimates that there are 2,000 Bengal tigers in the wild from an estimated 40,000 in India alone at 1900.

The bottom line is the Bangladesh population rises relentlessly and the landscape shrinks. This is no place for a wild animal that needs a large amount of space. An individual's range can be 50 to 1000 km2.

Until recently the tiger never came into villages. Now the Bengal tiger is a man eater coming into villages. This will leave them more vulnerable to attack by humans. I am afraid the IUCN Red List listing is rapidly becoming out of date. The next status will be Critically Endangered (CR).

Read lots more about Bengal tiger facts and its endangerment.

Bengal tiger is a man eater to Home Page

Photo: published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License

Jaguarundi Curl

The Jaguarundi Curl is a rare breed of domestic cat and a hybrid cat named after a wildcat whose habitat is in South America; that sounds a bit complicated.

There is no connection genetically between the Jaguarundi Curl and the Jaguarundi wildcat. The connection is in appearance, no more.

So, I need to remind myself what a Jaguarundi wildcat looks like then I can compare it with the domestic Jaguarundi Curl.

Here is a picture:


Jaguarundi wildcat - photo by alumroot published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License (Flickr). Click to see a large format version of this picture. The ticked coat is very apparent.

Here is another picture showing the whole body and the legs. Why show the legs? Well, the Jaguarundi Curl is a dwarf cat breed and has therefore short legs. This is meant to reflect the short legs of the Jaguarundi wildcat. But I confess, I don't think that the wildcat has particularly short legs. The tail though is long. This is not uncommon in wildcats particularly good tree climbers. The classic long tailed wildcat that excels at climbing is the endangered Clouded Leopard.


Jaguarundi wildcat photo: by WrenaissanceWoman taken at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum I believe. published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License (Flickr).

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Now lets look at the domestic Jaguarundi Curl. This is a cross between the Highland Lynx and a Munchkin or other dwarf cat breed. The Munchkin is the best known of the dwarf cats and the foundation dwarf cat breed in the creation of the other dwarf cat all of which are referred to with links to lots more on this page: Dwarf Cats and Miniature Cats. Dwarf cats, of course, have short legs. This is the connection with the short legged wildcat.

The Highland Lynx is curled eared cat (small ears too) and is part of the development of the Highlander cat (see some information here). The Highland Lynx has polydactyl feet as well (see an example of a polydactyl cat here: American Polydactyl cat).

Although the Highland Lynx has a shortish tail this has been eliminated apparently in the development of the this cat breed to reflect the long tail of the wildcat. So, this cat has curled ears inherited from the Highland Lynx. The best known curled eared cat is the American Curl.

The preferred coat type of the Jaguarundi Curl is ticked. The best known ticked coat is on the Abyssinian. But the Jaguarundi wildcat has a heavily ticked coat. Ticked coats are very common on wildcats. It is a form of tabby coat and provides good camouflage. See cat coats tabby.

In conclusion this cat is a muscular, curled eared, short legged, longish bodied cat with a tabby ticked coat, which is sometimes a spotted tabby. I can't show you a picture because there aren't any except there is one useable picture on the Rare and Exotic Feline Registry website and I don't have their permission to publish it here.

Update 8th Jan 2010: I have permission. Here is a picture of Sasha:


Jaguarundi Curl - Sasha - published with the permission of Joe Childers of Timberline Cattery (new window).

And here is Low Girl:


Jaguarundi Curl - Low Girl - Photos are copyright Joe Childers.

From Jaguarundi cat to Home page

Habitat of Snow Leopard

The habitat of the snow leopard covers a large number of countries, which can be seen on the map below marked in green. The range is actually more fragmented than as presented in this map - see below.

Range of the Snow Leopard (marked green).

The above map is published under a Wikimedia® creative commons license license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. User: Laurascudder. This is a modified version as allowed under the license. The picture has been cropped slightly and the names of the countries added.

Perhaps a more complete or detailed list of countries where this big cat is considered native are: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China (Gansu, Nei Mongol - possible, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan - Regionally Extinct), India (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttaranchal), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian, Tajikistan, Tibet, Uzbekistan (src: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™).

Below is another map of the snow leopard range (distribution). It is more fragmented than the Wikipedia version but more precise. It is based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ map which should be the most up to date range map available.





The habitat of the snow leopard is a rocky one. They are rock climbers and very agile over rock. The terrain is rugged. The terrain is broken and rocky, sparsely vegetated. and dry. It is above the tree line. As can be seen from the above video the habitat of the snow leopard is steep! They spend most of the time living on 40º slopes. Although at lower elevations they use the flat planes in between the mountains.

The snow leopard is "sparsely distributed" throughout the mountains of Central Asia. The population size is not certain. Snow leopards inhabit elevations between 600 meters (2,000 feet) to 5,500 meters (18,000 feet) in the summer. They are found in arid and semi-arid steppe habitats. In some areas such as the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and Tibet's Chang Tang there is virtually no vegetation despite the fact that the diet of this cat includes a relatively high percentage of plant material. In Pakistan and India they come down to the fir, oak and rhododendron forests in the winter.

Populations of snow leopards are separated by the mountain ranges. As at 2002 the area of the snow leopard was estimated to be 1.2 to 1.6 million km², although at one time it exceeded 2.5 million km².

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See lots more on the Snow Leopard

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If you have searched for, "habitat of snow leopard", the natural question that follows from looking at this map is what is it like "on the ground" in the places on the map? I hope the following pictures give a good indication. In the summer the Snow Leopard lives at a height of 9-20,000 feet, above the tree line and in rocky areas. In the winter it is lower down at about 6,000 feet and into the forests.

In Afghanistan the Hindu Kush is an area in the north of country and on the boundary with Pakistan. The picture above is what it looks like. This is an area where the Snow Leopard lives.

Prey will be sparse in an area like this so the range will be very large.

In Nepal prey is easier to find and the range smaller as a consequence as the habitat is less hostile:



In Mongolia the habitat of the Snow Leopard is the Mongolian Altai. This is a place where where Russia, China (Tibet), Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together (please see the map above). This is what it looks like "on the ground":



Then we have the Tibetan mountains. Here is what it looks like on the ground again:


All these photographs generally indicate a pretty harsh habitat for the Snow Leopard. The Snow Leopard is ranked as endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List. This ranking is mid-point on the list between the best status of "least concern" and the worst "extinct". Yet there are only about 4- 7,500 cats in the wild (update: population sizes are always estimates and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ says, "the total estimated population is 4,080-6,590" (at 2009)). In Afghanistan, for example, there are only 1- 200 covering an area of about 50,000 Sq. Kms. This seems more than endangered to me.


Snow leopard photographed at a zoo - photograph by Ginger Me

Photographs other than the map of the range of the habitat and as indicated in the captions are:

• Hindu Kush by Fieldmedic

habitat of the snow leopard - All photographs are published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License.

Habitat of Snow Leopard to wild cat species

The reason for cat microchipping

Here is a story that underlines the reason for cat microchipping. I'll keep the story short. It's about a young cat called Lono, who was barely into adulthood who lived in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA (see the Google map below) with four other cats and Stephanie Nielsen.


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He went out with the other cats. He normally stays near the home. This time he disappeared. He had wondered into a neighbor's home. The neighbor had taken the cat to a veterinary center. Within the short space of time of 2 hours he was euthanized because there was no one to pay the bills. What bills? He was fit.

Whose fault is this? All three parties. Stephanie could have had Lono microchipped but was scared about health issues. There are health issues but the indicatios are that the benefits outweigh the health risks (see microchipping for pets). The neighbor is at fault most for not hanging on to Lono for a while and finding his home or at least wait a while for him to simply go home. What was the big deal? And to take the cat to a vets - big mistake. What are they going to do? And the vets; for me they were far too commercially minded and hasty to put this perfectly health cat down. Almost obscenely hasty. There actions showed an attitude that is diametrically opposite to that which should be demonstrated by a veterinarian, one which is committed to saving life. I think there is an attitude that undervalues feral cats (they presumed that Lono was a feral cat - bad presumption - never make presumptions unless you are forced to).

Is there any legal recourse, compensation? Not a chance. This would be civil action for tresspass to goods (cats are chattels in the eyes of the law) perhaps but it would be simply too troublesome and the chance of success slim. A criminal action is out of the question but it looks close on the face of it. There was no need to kill the cat. Might that action fall under the animal protection laws of Connecticut? I am being provocative.

Connecticut cat and animal cruelty laws
Check out the laws and decide for yourself. The truth is that there is some merit from my standpoint in considering a criminal prosecution but it is without merit as it would not be in the public's interest. The reason for cat microchipping cats can be found in this story but the health risks surrounding the process need to be sorted out. Microchipping is a powerful force in the control of irresponsible people who abandon cats feeding the feral cat problem.

The reason for cat microchipping to Cats and the Law

Aggravated cat cruelty is a felony

Aggravated cat cruelty is a felony in Colorado. A man who shot his wife's cat with a .22 rifle to get even has admitted it and pleaded guilty to felony. A felony is a serious crime. This crime was aggravated because he needlessly killed an animal.

Cat and animal cruelty laws Colorado
See the legislation.

The punishment is severe I am personally pleased to see. The minimum jail sentence is 1 year and the maximum is 3 years as at the date of this post. Laws change.

Aggravated cat cruelty is not a felony in all the states of America. The legislation differs.

USA cat and animal cruelty laws
See an introduction to the laws relating to animal cruelty in the USA plus other countries for comparison.