The Chinese mountain cat (''Felis bieti''), also known as Chinese desert cat and Chinese steppe cat, is a small wild ''

Felis ''Felis'' is a genus of small and medium-sized cat species native to most of Africa and south of 60° latitude in Europe and Asia to Indochina. The genus includes the domestic cat. The smallest of the seven ''Felis'' species is the black-footed ...

'' species with sand-coloured fur, faint dark stripes on the face and legs and black tipped ears. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or Qingzang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and East Asia. Geographically, it is located to the north of H ...

western China Western China ( zh, s=中国西部, l=, labels=no or zh, s=华西, l=, labels=no) is the west of China. It consists of Southwestern China and Northwestern China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers six provinces ...

, where it lives in

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

above elevations of . It has been listed as vulnerable on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

since 2002.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

The

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''Felis bieti'' was proposed by

Alphonse Milne-Edwards Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Paris, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French mammalogist, ornithologist, and carcinologist. He was English in origin, the son of Henri Milne-Edwards and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who ...

in 1892 who described the Chinese mountain cat based on a skin collected in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Province. He named it ''Felis Bieti'' in honour of the French missionary

Félix Biet Félix Biet, MEP (1838 in Langres, Haute-Marne – 1901 in Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or) was a French Catholic prelate who served as the Apostolic Vicar of Tibet from 1878 to 1901. He was a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and also a natur ...

. In 2007, it was provisionally classified as a wildcat

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

under the name ''F. silvestris bieti''. It has been recognised as a valid species since 2017, as it is morphologically distinct from wildcats. The Chinese mountain cat belongs to an

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

ary ''Felis'' lineage that is estimated to have had a

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonl ...

with the

Asiatic wildcat The Asiatic wildcat (''Felis lybica ornata''), also known as the Indian desert cat, is an African wildcat subspecies that occurs from the eastern Caspian Sea north to Kazakhstan, into western India, western China and southern Mongolia. There is ...

(''F. lybica ornata'') around during the

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

Gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as migration and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic variation, genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent ...

from Chinese mountain cats to domestic

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s (''F. catus'') in a few areas of the Tibetan Plateau is estimated to have happened between the 1960s and 2000s.

Characteristics

The Chinese mountain cat has sand-coloured fur with dark

guard hair Guard hair or overhair is the outer layer of hair of most mammals, which overlay the fur. Guard hairs are long and coarse and protect the rest of the pelage (fur) from abrasion and frequently from moisture. They are visible on the surface of the ...

s. Faint dark horizontal stripes on the face and legs are hardly visible. Its ears have black tips. It has a relatively broad skull, and long hair growing between the pads of their feet. It is whitish on the belly, and its legs and tail bear black rings. The tip of the tail is black. It is long in head and body with a long tail. Adults weigh from .

Distribution and habitat

The Chinese mountain cat is

to China and lives on the north-eastern edge of the

. It was recorded only in eastern

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

and north-western

. It inhabits high-elevation steppe

alpine meadow Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

, alpine

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

and

coniferous forest Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

edges at elevations of . It has not been confirmed in true

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

or heavily forested mountains. The first photographs of a wild Chinese mountain cat were taken in 2007. One individual was observed and photographed in May 2015 in the Ruoergai grasslands. Between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, Chinese mountain cats were documented in an alpine meadow in the southeastern

Sanjiangyuan The Sanjiangyuan ( zh, c=三江源, l=Source of Three Rivers), is an area of the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai province, China which contains the headwaters of three great rivers of Asia: the Yellow, the Yangtze, and the Mekong. Parts of the area w ...

region.

Ecology and behaviour

The Chinese mountain cat is active at night and preys on

pika A pika ( , or ) is a small, mountain-dwelling mammal native to Asia and North America. With short limbs, a very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative the rabbit, but with short, rounded ears. ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

s and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. It breeds between January and March. Females give birth to two to four kittens in a secluded burrow. Until 2007, the Chinese mountain cat was known only from six individuals, all living in Chinese zoos, and a handful of skins in museums.

Threats

The Chinese mountain cat is threatened due to the organised poisoning of

s. The poison used diminishes prey species and also kills cats unintentionally.

Conservation

''Felis bieti'' is listed on

CITES Appendix II CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

. It is protected in China by laws such as the Animal Protection Law and the Forestry Law. It has been listed as a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

on the

since 2002 and is included in the list of ''National First-Class Protected Animals'' under the ''Law of the People's Republic on the Conservation of Wild Animals'' since February 2021. In July 2023, a Chinese mountain cat was fitted with a GPS collar and released into the wild by the Qinghai Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center. A five-year-old male was caught in a mouse trap when trying to hunt in a chicken pen. He was sent to the Center in June 2023 to be treated for a leg wound and for rehabilitation.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cat, Chinese Mountain

Chinese Mountain Cat The Chinese mountain cat (''Felis bieti''), also known as Chinese desert cat and Chinese steppe cat, is a small wild '' Felis'' species with sand-coloured fur, faint dark stripes on the face and legs and black tipped ears. It is endemic to the ...

Mammals described in 1892 Endemic fauna of China Mammals of China