Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul), also called manul, is a small wild cat with long and dense light grey fur, and rounded ears set low on the sides of the head. Its head-and-body length ranges from 46 to 65 cm (18 to 26 in) with a 21–31 cm (8.3–12.2 in) long bushy tail. It is well camouflaged and adapted to the cold continental climate in its native range, which receives little rainfall and experiences a wide range of temperatures. Pallas's cat was first described in 1776 by Peter Simon Pallas, who observed it in the vicinity of Lake Baikal. Since then, it has been recorded across a large region in Central Asia, albeit in widely spaced sites from the Caucasus, Iranian Plateau, Hindu Kush, parts of the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau to the Altai-Sayan region and South Siberian Mountains. It inhabits rocky montane grasslands and shrublands, where the snow cover is below 15–20 cm (6–8 in). It finds shelter in rock crevices and burrows, and preys foremost on lagomorphs and rodents. The female gives birth to between two and six kittens in spring. Due to its widespread range and assumed large population, Pallas's cat has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2020. Some population units are threatened by poaching, prey base decline due to rodent control programs, and habitat fragmentation as a result of mining and infrastructure projects. Pallas's cat has been kept in zoos since the early 1950s. As of 2018, 60 zoos in Europe, Russia, North America and Japan participate in Pallas's cat captive breeding programs.
Etymology "Manul" is Pallas's cat's name in the Mongolian language, and it is called "manol" in the Kyrgyz language. The common name 'Pallas's cat' was coined by William Thomas Blanford in honour of Peter Simon Pallas.
Taxonomy Felis manul was the scientific name used by Peter Simon Pallas in 1776, who first described a Pallas's cat that he had encountered near the Dzhida River southeast of Lake Baikal. Several Pallas's cat zoological specimens were subsequently described:
Felis nigripectus proposed by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1842 was based on three specimens from Tibet. Otocolobus manul ferrugineus proposed by Sergey Ognev in 1928 was an erythristic specimen from the Kopet Dag mountains. Otocolobus was proposed by Johann Friedrich von Brandt in 1842 as a generic name. Reginald Innes Pocock recognized the taxonomic rank of Otocolobus in 1907, described several Pallas's cat skulls in detail and considered Pallas's cat an aberrant form of Felis. In 1951, John Ellerman and Terence Morrison-Scott considered
the nominate subspecies Felis manul manul to be distributed from Russian Turkestan to Transbaikalia; F. m. nigripecta to be distributed in Tibet and Kashmir; F. m. ferruginea occurring from southwestern Turkestan and the Kopet Dag mountains to Afghanistan and Balochistan. Since 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group recognises only two subspecies as valid taxa, namely:
O. m. manul syn. O. m. ferrugineus in the western and northern part of Central Asia from Iran to Mongolia; O. m. nigripectus in the Himalayas from Kashmir to Bhutan.
Phylogeny Phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear DNA in tissue samples from all Felidae species revealed that the evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia during the late Miocene around 14.45 to 8.38 million years ago. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at around 16.76 to 6.46 million years ago. Pallas's cat is estimated to have genetically diverged from a common ancestor with the genus Prionailurus between 8.55 to 4.8 million years ago based on analysis of nuclear DNA. Based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, it diverged 9.4 to 1.46 million years ago from a common ancestor with Felis.
Characteristics
Pallas's cat's fur is light grey with pale yellowish-ochre or pale yellowish-reddish hues. Some hair tips are white and some blackish. Its fur is greyer and denser with fewer markings visible in winter than in the summer. The forehead and top of the head are light grey with small black spots. It has two black zigzag lines on the cheeks running from the corner of the eyes to the jaw joints. Its chin, whiskers, lower and upper lips are white. It has narrow black stripes on the back, consisting of five to seven dark transversal lines across the lower back. Its grey tail has seven narrow black rings and a black tip. The underfur is 40 mm (1.6 in) long and 19 μm thick, and the guard hairs up to 69 mm (2.7 in) long and 93 μm (0.0037 in) thick on the back. Its fur is soft and dense with up to 9,000 hairs/cm2 (58,000 hairs/in2). Pallas's cat's ears are grey with a yellowish tinge on the back and a darker rim, but with whitish hair in front and in the ear pinnae. Its rounded ears are set low on the side, such that it can peer over an object and show only a relatively small part of the head above the eyes without depressing the ears. This can give its face a look of ferocity and unrest. Its eyes are encircled by white. The iris is yellowish, and its pupils contract to small circular disks in sunlight. Among the Felinae, it shares this trait of round pupils with Puma, Herpailurus and Acinonyx species. Pallas's cat is about the size of a domestic cat (Felis catus). Its stocky posture with the long and dense fur make it appear stout and plush. Its head-to-body is 46–65 cm (18–26 in) long with a 21–31 cm (8.3–12.2 in) long tail. It weighs 2.5–4.5 kg (5 lb 8 oz – 9 lb 15 oz). Its body is stout, and its skull is rounded with a short nasal bone, an enlarged cranial part and rounded zygomatic arches. Its orbits are large and directed forward. Its legs are short with short and sharp retractile claws. The skull of males is 87–95 mm (3.4–3.7 in) long and 66–74 mm (2.6–2.9 in) wide at the base, and that of females is 84–96 mm (3.3–3.8 in) long and 65–68 mm (2.6–2.7 in) wide. The lower carnassial teeth are powerful, and the upper carnassials are short and massive. The first pair of upper premolars is absent. The dental formula is 3.1.2.13.1.2.1 × 2 = 28. It has a bite force at the canine tip of 155.4 newtons and a bite force quotient at the canine tip of 113.8. The mitochondrial genome of Pallas's cat consists of 16,672 base pairs containing 13 protein-coding, 22 transfer RNA and two ribosomal RNA genes and one non-coding RNA control region.
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