What Varieties Of Wild Cat Can Be Found In Colombia?

There are eight species of cats in Colombia. The best known are the jaguar—the tiger of South and Central America—and the puma, also known as the mountain lion or cougar. There are some very interesting smaller cats such as the ocelot and the jaguarundi. But many people consider the most interesting cat of Colombia to be the margay.

The margay is not much larger than a house cat, and is about as playful as one. It has black-on-yellow color markings suggestive of a rosette, with the rosettes elongating on the back and head, even appearing as stripes on the head. The margay's beauty and playfulness make one want to take him home.

The Matecaña Zoo in Pereira, Colombia, has a couple of these little charmers. Here one of them was observed to play with a dry leaf as a house cat would. A notebook held close to his cage attracted a number of delicate pats without hint of claws. He also was observed to exercise discretion.

He could not be enticed near the adjoining cage where his neighbour, a larger ocelot, was ready to bestow unfriendly attentions. However, the other margay positioned himself near his neighbour, a bear cub, and at each passing of the bear would hiss and spit much as a domestic cat hisses and spits at a dog. He well knew that the bear could not reach him.

In their natural habitat these cats are active at night, and live in trees. Because of their retiring nature and the denseness of their jungle home, comparatively little is yet known about them.

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