Вот уж действительно дымчатый леопард неуловим!

Даже в теме, названной его именем, вот уже несколько страниц про него ни буквы.

Чукча не писатель, чукча читатель.

Ну хватит уже, Атрокс!
Это действительно тема про дымчатых леопардов, не цепляйся к словам еще и ты!
Не знает он - ну и ладно, пусть идет хоть простую энциклопедию или флоранимал.ру откроет и прочтет.

Вот поэтому и советуют почитать википедию или сайт www.floranimal.ru и получить базальные знания. Там есть вкратце про виверр.
А про "цепкий" хвост кошек уже достаточно объяснили. Среди отряда хищных цепким хвостом только некоторые еноты и некоторые виверры. Причём я знаю только двух - кинкажу (енот) и бинтуронг (виверра). Среди кошек нет и никогда не было цепкохвостых форм.

Dantey :

меня мои базальные знания вполне устраивают

Т.е., ты считаешь, что того минимума, что тебе известно - достаточно и поднимать уровень осведомлённости не нужно?)

Отредактировано Revs (28 January 2010 12:18:03)

На острове Борнео биологи выделили новый вид леопардов. Их ДНК отличается от континентального аналога как минимум по 40 ключевым позициям. По словам учёных, на острове скрыто ещё множество неизвестных науке видов. Дымчатых леопардов, обитающих на островах Борнео и Суматра, придётся выделять в отдельный вид кошачьих. К такому выводу пришли генетики из Национального института рака (США). До сих пор биологи считали, что островные и обитающие на континентальной части Юго-Восточной Азии леопарды принадлежат к одному виду. И наличие серьезных отличий в окраске материковых и дымчатых леопардов поколебать учёных не могло. Однако теперь придётся островных жителей отделять, заявил директор лаборатории генетических различий Национального института рака доктор Стивен О`Брайен. Смириться с выделением островных леопардов в отдельный вид биологам помогут результаты ДНК-анализа. Геном «островитян» отличается от континентального как минимум по 40 важнейшим пунктам.
Как пояснил доктор Эндрю Китчнер из ассоциации «Национальные музеи Шотландии», сначала они изучили мех дымчатых леопардов. Он темнее, чем у континентальных леопардов, и состоит из дымчатых пятен (или «облаков»), состоящих из серой или тёмно-серой середины и ярко выделенной границей почти чёрного цвета. Пятна отделены друг от друга тонкими полосками ярко-коричневой (чуть рыжеватой) шерсти. Пятна материковых леопардов отличаются большим размером. Кроме того, животное окрашено намного светлее, основная гамма меха азиатских леопардов – коричнево-желтая. «Когда мы начали сравнивать мех дымчатых леопардов материка и острова Борнео, мы поняли, что перед нами два разных вида», – сказал Китчнер. Но так как их заявление никого не убедило, учёные прибегли к ДНК-анализу. Теперь они развивают своё утверждение. Так как генетически самостоятельность обоих видов доказана, можно гадать о времени их разделения. Пока существует предположение, что ключевые мутации произошли примерно 1,4 млн лет назад.
http://www.floranimal.ru/

Первое в истории видео калимантанского дымпарда

Симпотично )

Всё-таки дымчатый леопард ближе к саблезубым кошкам чем все остальные современные кошачьи...

Дымчатый леопард и парамахайрод:


Diard's clouded leopard got quite a bit of media attention in 2006 when it was shown by genetics and pelt morphometrics that the population at Sumatra and Borneo differed enough from mainland population to warrant new species status.
(See excellent post about this by Darren Naish HERE)

(Christiansen, 2008) strengthens this distinction even further by performing morphometric analysis to 25 skulls of N. diardi and 17 skulls of N. nebulosa. The results show conclusively that the variation between two population goes way further than that seen between subspecies of pantherine cats.

Among other features, N. diardi differed from N. nebulosa by having longer and flatter upper canine, narrower palate between canines but wider across pterygoids, thicker upper carnassials across the paracone, larger lower premolar 4 and smaller lower premolar 3.

Per Christiansen has previously made valuable work noting convergent sabertooth characteristics seen in Neofelis (Christiansen, 2006, 2008b) . Especially interesting is the grand
similarity between Neofelis and basal Machairodont cat, Paramachairodus ogygia.
One of the more impressive manifestations of this convergence is that Neofelis has the largest gape of any cat. It can open it's jaws up to 85 degrees.

(Adjacent picture is from (Salesa et al, 2005).

I find it very intriguing that Diard's Clouded leopard goes further in in these sabertooth convergences than it's mainland relative and I can't help but
wonder what drives such development. The burning question is how does this small basal Pantherine cat make it's kills?

Unfortunately we know pitifully little about how clouded leopards hunt and kill in nature (Not to mention the differences between N. Diardi and N. nebulosa on this matter).
What is knows is that it's diet consist of variety of arboreal prey (Monkeys etc.) but apparently it's also able to subdue prey of it's own size or larger
like muntjak, bearded pig and hog deer (Christiansen, 2006).
Odly enough reports suggest that instead of attacking the throat, clouded leopard uses powerful nape bite to subdue their prey (Christiansen, 2006).

Risking those long canines like that seems counter intuitive to me, but nature hardly holds any value what derived African ape thinks about what is and what is not counter intuitive.

References:


Christiansen P. 2006. Sabertooth characters in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa Griffiths 1821). Journal of Morphology.267(10):1186-1198.

Per Christiansen (2008). Species distinction and evolutionary differences in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and Diard's clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) Journal of Mammalogy, 89 (6), 1435-1446


Christiansen P. 2008b Evolutionary convergence of primitive sabertooth craniomandibular morphology: the clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa ) and Paramachairodus ogygia compared. Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 15(3):155-179.




Salesa MJ, Anton M, Turner A, Morales J. 2005. Aspects of the functional morphology in the cranial and cervical skeleton of the sabre-toothed cat Paramachairodus ogygia (Kaup, 1832) (Felidae, Machairodontinae) from the Late Miocene of Spain: implications for the origins of the machairodont killing bite. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 144(3):363-377.

Отредактировано Crazy Zoologist (07 March 2010 22:58:01)

На тайване автоматическая камера сфотографировала дымчатого леопарда, это вид кошачьих не встречали на острове уже более 10 лет!

Сейчас ириомотскую кошку все-таки выделяют.

Там разница в ДНК значительная как я понял. Да и мордой они отличаются. Вот:




Есть отличия в зубах, об этом я писал в своей статье. Островной вид специализированней.

While everyone knows the striking but conservative beauty of the ocelot, the clouded leopard’s markings surpass any designs, spots, stripes or shades familiar to cat fanciers, and have to be seen to be appreciated. The large, irregular, never alike marbled blotches are much more definite then in its smaller relative, the mysterious marbled cat. The thick, furry tail (in most instances noted on animals indigenous to high altitude areas) of unusually long proportions reminds one of the snow leopard and adds to a unique picture.

Extremely large males may reach 55 pounds the much smaller females will average slightly over 30 pounds. The conformation of the animals is also extremely odd. The front part of the body is low-sling, compact and powerful. The unusually large front paws, short, muscular legs and the pugnacious lower jaw are strongly reminiscent of another denison of the deep forest in this hemisphere – the jaguar. The canine teeth are relatively by far the longest among felines. They invariably astonish the non-initiated. Many scientists have ascertained direct relation in this respect between n. nebulosa and the now extinct but famed Smilodon or Saber-tooth tiger.

I began my feline career many decades ago as a professional trainer, in fact I was featured on Ed Sullivan show in 1961 with an act that consisted of trained greyhounds and monkeys. I advanced to create numerous Siberian tiger acts and was famous for my uncaged leopard acts. A specialty of mine featured one star feline, a male black leopard that regularly jumped 17 feet into my arms without ever causing injury, a feat never duplicated by any other trainer.

It was my great understanding of feline behavior and my intrigue of these wondrous species that lead me to center my energies on the captive breeding of rare and endangered felines. I was alarmed to learn that early zoo efforts to breed clouded leopards resulted in 16 deaths in just one year. These felines were suffering from excessive stress caused by public display, transfers of individuals to new zoos, inappropriate enclosure designs, the breakup of established pairs, or the post-adolescent pairing of adults. This species was never common in captivity and to loose them to such poor husbandry understanding was especially upsetting to me. This was an extremely rare feline. To put this in perspective from a financial aspect, in the late 1960’s ocelots could be regularly imported and purchased for about $150 dollars, while clouded leopards if available, commanded around $2,500.

I felt it was my duty to utilize my experience and knowledge to stop this massacre and help insure the future survival of this extraordinary feline by pioneering successful captive breeding programs. To this end I traveled to Viet Nam, a French-speaking nation, to work with that country and import this species. This was back in the early 1970’s, before the US Congress approved the Endangered Species Act, before the international treaty to regulate trade of endangered species was written. (CITES)

I studied the felines in their native countries, and then made a special trip to the Frankfort Zoo in Germany to see the director, Dr. Grzymek. This European facility was successfully breeding this species and I learned that they were feeding whole animals consisting of freshly killed rabbits, rats, pigeons and chickens and fresh blood.

I imported about a dozen clouded leopards from Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia to form the basis of my breeding stock. All were supposed to be less then 6 months old, however the exporters were not honest about their ages and in fact none were that young and a couple of the females arrived pregnant.

At the Savage Kingdom we bred and raised rabbits for prey as well as purchased live rats for these cats. Based on my observations it is my opinion that clouded leopards cannot properly digest their food without the all-important pre-play. Typically a clouded leopard will kill its prey and then play with its lifeless body for an hour before consuming it. If given access to trees, a clouded leopard will climb a tree and consume the animal there. Another important consideration when raising clouded leopards for breeding is to address their psychological need to access height, a part of their arboreal makeup. Enclosures for clouded leopards should be designed at least 10 feet in height.

The Savage Kingdom facility is located in central Florida and our property is covered with stately and enormous live oaks. During an episode at my compound a large male made a b-line to one of my 100-foot tall oak trees in less then a second the specimen reached the very top where it disappeared completely. I sent a young helper with a short-range capture gun. When my man approached within 6 foot of the animal the clouded performed an unbelievable 45 degree jump towards the ground all legs spread out like a flying squirrel and hit the ground like a rubber cat and in three leaps was up another 70 foot tall tree where we finally tranquilized him with no damage at all. This story illustrates this feline species desire to inhabit the forest canopy and comfort they derive from gaining height.

Another aspect of clouded leopard behavior is their intense need to form pair bonds. In fact in order for clouded leopards to successfully mate they must be in love. When a compatible pair is introduced young they will breed. Once breeding is observed, I note the approximate date for the birth and then remove the male before the female is in labor. We never broke up any pairs, but kept breeding the same couples for their lifetime.

In our breeding career we produced 75 clouded leopard offspring and dispersed 67 of them to other zoos and facilities. These cats form the foundation stock of the American and European zoological collections of present day. Usually we kept the kittens with their mother for about 6 weeks and then pulled them for taming and to enable them to be paired up with others of the opposite sex. Initial diet for a 6-week-old kitten was freshly killed rabbit meat with KMR poured on it. Sometimes cubs were pulled at a younger age and bottle raised. This hand rearing produced extremely tame individuals.

Clouded leopards are extremely vocal and University of Florida students studied our population and their language. I have counted over 40 different sounds made by this species, including sounds that mimic other animals, such as various birdcalls and monkey calls.