Oncilla

672 Words2 Pages

The Oncilla, also known as the little spotted cat or little tiger cat, is one of the smallest wild cat species in the Americas. The scientific name of the Oncilla is Leopardus tigrinus (Petersen). I chose the Oncilla because I saw a picture of it and I thought it was appealing. The fur and eyes are what caught my eye when I saw the picture. I thought the Oncilla was interesting because it looks like a domestic cat but it is not. Thee Oncilla is really small and it has big eyes which made it look really adorable. I found out that the Oncilla is a relative to the Ocelot and Margay, which I thought was interesting. The Oncilla is venerable to extinction because the biggest threat to the animal is man. Humans capture the Oncilla then usually sell them as pets.

The Oncilla commonly lives in high elevated areas of the jungle within South and Central America (Petersen). In Brazil, the Oncilla has been found in subtropical forest highlands, plantation fields, deforested areas and eucalyptus monoculture. They have a preference for the montane cloud forest. The Oncilla is an obligated carnivore, which means that they are required to eat meat in order to survive. In their habitat they have all of the resources for survival. They eat small mammals, lizards, birds, invertebrates and sometimes tree frogs. The places the Oncilla live tend to be very warm and humid. The Oncilla does not migrate to any other place.

The Oncilla has a slender body, narrow muzzle, round ears and round eyes are usually gold. The body of the Oncilla is covered with thick fur that can be tan or ochre in color. The upper side of the Oncilla is covered with dark rosettes. Rosettes are what the spots on the Oncilla are called. The lower side of the body is pale and...

... middle of paper ...

...-the-oncilla.htm>.
"Oncilla Characteristics." http://www.planetwildlife.com/. PlantWildlife. Web. 7 Apr 2014. .
"Oncilla Facts." http://www.softschools.com. Softschools. Web. 31 Mar 2014. .
"Oncilla." http://www.felineconservation.org/. Feline Conservation Federation . Web. 31 Mar 2014. .
Patel, C. 2011. "Leopardus tigrinus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 07, 2014 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Leopardus_tigrinus/ de Oliveira, T., Eizirik, E., Schipper, J., Valderrama, C., Leite-Pitman, R. & Payan, E. 2008. Leopardus tigrinus. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. www.iucnredlist.org 07 April 2014.

More about Oncilla

Open Document