Felis chaus chaus

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Felis chaus chaus
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Felinae
Genus: Felis
Species:
F. chaus
Subspecies:
F. c. chaus
Trinomial name
Felis chaus chaus
Schreber, 1777
Synonyms
  • F. c. oxiana Heptner, 1969
  • F. c. nilotica de Winton, 1898
  • F. c. furax de Winton, 1898

Felis chaus chaus is the nominate subspecies of the jungle cat.[1]

The Baltic-German naturalist Johann Anton Güldenstädt was the first scientist who observed a jungle cat in the southern frontier of the Russian empire during his travels in 1768–1775 undertaken on behalf of Catherine II of Russia.[2] He described the cat in 1776 under the name "chaus".[3][4]

Taxonomic history[]

In 1778, the German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber used chaus as the species name and is therefore considered the binomial authority.[5]

In the 19th and 20th centuries, several specimen were described and proposed as subspecies:

  • In the 1820s, the German explorer Eduard Rüppell collected a female Felis Chaus near Lake Manzala in the Nile Delta.[6] But only in 1832, the German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt recognized the distinctness of the Egyptian jungle cat and proposed the name Felis Rüppelii.[7] In 1898, William Edward de Winton renamed the Egyptian jungle cat as Felis chaus nilotica, as the name Felis ruppelii was already applied to a different cat.[8]
  • In 1898, the British zoologist William Edward de Winton examined the collection of jungle cat skins in the Natural History Museum and revised taxonomic assessments of the jungle cat group. A single skin collected near Jericho in 1864 prompted him to describe a new subspecies Felis chaus furax as this skin was smaller than other jungle cat skins.[8]
  • During an expedition to Afghanistan in the 1880s, mammal skins were collected and later presented to the Indian Museum. One cat skin without skull from the area of Maimanah in the country's north was initially identified as of Felis caudata, but in the absence of skins for comparison the author was not sure whether his identification was correct.[9] In his revision of Asiatic wildcat skins collected in the Zoological Museum of Berlin, the German zoologist Zukowsky reassessed the Maimanah cat skin, and because of its larger size and shorter tail than caudata skins proposed a new species with the scientific name Felis (Felis) maimanah. Zukowsky assumed that the cat inhabits the region south of the Amu Darya River.[10] The Russian zoologist Ognev acknowledged Zukowsky’s assessment but also suggested that more material is needed for a definite taxonomic classification of this cat.[11] In his posthumously published monograph about skins and skulls of the genus Felis in the collection of the Natural History Museum, the British taxonomist Pocock referred neither to Zukowsky’s appraisal nor to jungle cat skins from Afghanistan.[12] The British natural historian Ellerman and zoologist Morrison-Scott tentatively subordinated the Maimanah cat skin as a subspecies of Felis chaus.[13]
  • In 1969, the Russian biologist Heptner described a jungle cat from the lower course of the Vakhsh River in Central Asia and proposed the name Felis (Felis) chaus oxiana.[14]

Since 2017, all four are considered synonyms of F. c. chaus.[1]

The German zoologist Paul Matschie in 1912 and the American zoologist Joel Asaph Allen in 1920 challenged the validity of Güldenstädt's nomenclature, arguing that the name Felis auriculis apice nigro barbatis was not a binomen and therefore improper, and that "chaus" was used as a common name rather than as part of the scientific name.[15]

Distribution[]

This subspecies occurs in the Caucasus, Turkestan, Iran, Baluchistan and Yarkand, Chinese Turkestan, Palestine, southern Syria, Iraq, Egypt;[16] northern Afghanistan and south of the Amu Darya River;[17] along the right tributaries of the Amu Darya River, in the lower courses of the Vakhsh River ranging eastwards to the Gissar Valley and slightly beyond Dushanbe.[14]

Jungle cats have also been recorded in central and southern Turkey.[18][19]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Kitchener, A. C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Eizirik, E., Gentry, A., Werdelin, L., Wilting A., Yamaguchi, N., Abramov, A. V., Christiansen, P., Driscoll, C., Duckworth, J. W., Johnson, W., Luo, S.-J., Meijaard, E., O’Donoghue, P., Sanderson, J., Seymour, K., Bruford, M., Groves, C., Hoffmann, M., Nowell, K., Timmons, Z. & Tobe, S. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group" (PDF). Cat News (Special Issue 11).CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  2. ^ Güldenstädt, J. A. (1787). Reisen durch Russland und im Caucasischen Gebürge (in German). St. Petersburg, Russia: Kayserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften.
  3. ^ Güldenstädt, J. A. (1776). "Chaus – Animal feli adfine descriptum". Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae (in Latin). 20: 483–500.
  4. ^ Sanderson, J. (2009). "A Matter of Very Little Moment? The mystery of who first described the jungle cat". Feline Conservation Federation. 53 (1): 12–18.
  5. ^ Schreber, J. C. D. (1778). "Der Kirmyschak". Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur, mit Beschreibungen. Erlangen: Wolfgang Walther. pp. 414–416.
  6. ^ Rüppell, E. (1826). Atlas zu der Reise im nördlichen Afrika. Erste Abtheilung: Zoologie. Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main.
  7. ^ Brandt, J. F. (1832) De nova generis Felis specie, Felis Rüppelii nomine designanda hucusque vero cum Fele Chau confusa. Bulletin de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. 4: 209–213.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b De Winton, W. E. (1898). "Felis chaus and its Allies, with Descriptions of new Subspecies". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology. Seventh Series. II: 291–294.
  9. ^ Scully, J. (1887). On the mammals collected by Captain C. E. Yate, C.S.I., of the Afghan Boundary Commission. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology. Fifth Series, Vol. XX: 378–388.
  10. ^ Zukowsky, L. (1914). "Drei neue Kleinkatzenrassen aus Westasien: Felis (Felis) maimanah spec. nov.". Archiv für Naturgeschichte. 80 (10): 139−142.
  11. ^ Ognev, S. I. (1935). Zveri SSSR i priležaščich stran. Tom III. Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo biologičeskoj i medicinskoj literatury, Moskva i Leningrad. Page 144. (in Russian; Mammals of USSR and adjacent countries. Volume III.)
  12. ^ Pocock, R. I. (1951). Catalogue of the Genus Felis. The Trustees of the British Museum, London.
  13. ^ Ellerman, J. R., Morrison-Scott, T. C. S. (1966). "Felis chaus Güldenstädt, 1776". Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946 (Second ed.). London: British Museum of Natural History. pp. 306–307.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Geptner, V. G.; Sludskij, A. A. (1992) [1972]. "Jungle Cat". Mlekopitajuščie Sovetskogo Soiuza. Moskva: Vysšaia Škola [Mammals of the Soviet Union. Volume II, Part 2. Carnivora (Hyaenas and Cats)]. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation. pp. 356–398.
  15. ^ Allen, J.A. (1920). "Note on Güldenstädt's names of certain species of Felidae". Journal of Mammalogy. 1 (2): 90–91. doi:10.1093/jmammal/1.2.90.
  16. ^ Ellerman, J.R.; Morrison-Scott, T.C.S. (1966). Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian Mammals 1758 to 1946 (2nd ed.). London, UK: British Museum of Natural History. pp. 306–307.
  17. ^ Zukowsky, L. (1914). "Drei neue Kleinkatzenrassen aus Westasien" [Three new small breeds from east Asia]. Archiv für Naturgeschichte (in German). 80 (10): 139–142.
  18. ^ Avgan, B. (2009). "Sighting of a jungle cat and the threats of its habitat in Turkey". Cat News. 50: 16.
  19. ^ Ogurlu, I., Gundogdu, E., and Yildirim, I. C. (2010). "Population status of jungle cat (Felis chaus) in Egirdir lake, Turkey". Journal of Environmental Biology (31): 179–183.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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