Pallas'S Cat

Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul, also called manul) is a small wild cat with long, dense, light grey fur and rounded ears set low on the sides of the head. It is about the size of a domestic cat, with a head-and-body length of 46 to 65 cm, a bushy tail of 21 to 31 cm, and a weight of 2.5 to 4.5 kg. Its stocky build and thick coat make it look stout and plush.

The fur is light grey with pale yellowish-ochre or reddish hues, and some hair tips are white and some blackish. It is greyer and denser in winter, with fewer markings visible than in summer. There are small black spots on the head, two black zigzag lines on each cheek, and narrow dark bars across the lower back. The tail has seven narrow black rings and a black tip. The eyes are ringed with white and have yellowish irises, and the pupils shrink to small round discs in bright light.

Pallas's cats live in rocky mountain grasslands and shrublands, scree slopes and ravines across Central Asia, where snow cover stays below about 15-20 cm. Some are also kept in zoos.

Pallas's cat was first described in 1776 by Peter Simon Pallas, who met one near the Dzhida River, southeast of Lake Baikal. The English name honours him and was coined by William Thomas Blanford. "Manul" is the Mongolian name for the animal, and Kyrgyz speakers call it "manol".

Genetic studies suggest Pallas's cats diverged from a common ancestor shared with the genus Prionailurus roughly 8.55 to 4.8 million years ago. Analysis of a different kind of DNA suggests a split from a common ancestor with Felis between 9.4 and 1.46 million years ago. Since 2017, two subspecies are recognised: one in the western and northern parts of Central Asia, from Iran to Mongolia, and one in the Himalayas from Kashmir to Bhutan.

In the past, Pallas's cats were hunted for their fur in large numbers, with more than 10,000 skins a year in China, Mongolia and Russia. Hunting fell in the 1970s when they became legally protected in China and the former Soviet Union. They have been kept in zoos since the early 1950s, and by 2018 some 177 lived in 60 zoos in Europe, Russia, North America and Japan.

Pallas's cats are solitary. They shelter in caves, rock crevices and marmot burrows. In central Mongolia, radio-collared cats used many dens, staying in each for a few days to a few weeks. In central Mongolia, the home ranges of females varied from 7.4 to 125.2 square kilometres and those of males from 20.9 to 207.0 square kilometres, and a male's range overlapped those of one to four females.

They are highly specialised hunters of small mammals. They stalk or ambush prey near burrow exits and also pull rodents out of shallow burrows with their paws. Pikas, voles, gerbils and ground squirrels feature in their diet, along with some birds and insects.

In central Mongolia they were mainly active around dawn and dusk from May to August, but active by day from September to November. They communicate by scent, spraying urine, scraping and marking with scat. Captive cats have been seen hissing.

Females are sexually mature at about one year and give birth to two to six kittens between late April and late May after a gestation of 66 to 75 days. Kittens open their eyes at about two weeks, start hunting at about five months and reach adult size at six to seven months.

Wild Pallas's cats face threats from poaching, traps set for small mammals, and attacks by herding dogs. Rodent-control poisoning has also damaged the prey they depend on.

In zoos, early life has proved especially risky. Almost half of the kittens born in member zoos of one North American breeding programme died within their first 30 days, the highest captive mortality rate of any small wild cat. Sixteen Pallas's cats kept at Beijing Zoo between 1951 and 1979 each lived less than three years. A typical lifespan is not given for them in the wild.

This is general awareness only, not veterinary advice. If you find an injured or unwell wild animal, contact a vet or a wildlife rescue.

What is a Pallas's cat?

It is a small wild cat from the cold grasslands and rocky steppes of Central Asia, also called the manul. It is about the size of a domestic cat, and its stocky build and long, dense fur make it look stout and plush.

Where do Pallas's cats live?

They live in widely spaced areas from the Caucasus and Iranian Plateau through the Hindu Kush, Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau to the Altai-Sayan region and South Siberian Mountains. They have been recorded at heights of more than 5,000 m.

What do Pallas's cats eat?

They mainly eat small mammals such as pikas, voles and ground squirrels, plus some birds and insects. They catch them by stalking or ambushing.

Are Pallas's cats endangered?

They have been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2020, because their range is wide and the population is assumed to be large. Some local populations are threatened by poaching, falling prey numbers and habitat fragmentation.

Are Pallas's cats social?

No, they are solitary. Individuals have their own home ranges, which can overlap.

Pallas's cats have low-set, rounded ears, so they can peer over a rock showing very little of the head. This can give the face a fierce, unsettled look.

Their fur can reach up to 9,000 hairs per square centimetre.

They share round pupils with only a few other members of the cat subfamily, including pumas.

The highest record of Pallas's cat is scat found at 5,593 m in Nepal's Shey Phoksundo National Park.

They became the mascot of Moscow Zoo in 2012, and a 2008 Russian internet meme called "Pet the cat" features one.