Another attraction of Altai is the wild cat Manul, a small fur-bearing animal with an incredibly beautiful pattern on its fur, which has no value. It is almost impossible to meet a Pallas's cat in natural habitats, but you can see this rare predator in nature reserves and zoos.
Appearance of the Pallas's cat
The size of the predator is no different from that of a domestic cat; it is about 60 cm long and weighs about 2-5 kg. The Pallas' cat's body is larger than that of an ordinary cat, and it also has thick, short legs. Because of this remarkable feature, animals do not like snow, because with their short stature they simply drown in snowdrifts. Pallas's cat has small, round ears; it's funny that its Latin name, Otocolobus, translates to "ugly ear." The color of the Pallas's cat is very interesting; it helps the animal to hunt and hide from danger. The main color of the Pallas's cat is gray, with red splashes added on the sides. A charming feature of the Pallas' cat's appearance is its thick tail with a rounded tip.
Population and habitats of Pallas's cat in Altai
Previously, the Pallas's cat was considered an ordinary fluffy animal, so local residents annually prepared a lot of skins of these animals. Now the Pallas's cat is included in the Red Book, but so far we see only approximate data on its population. This predator is of great scientific interest due to its rarity and secretive lifestyle. Pallas' cats are excellent at hiding and conspiring, so when counting it is very easy not to detect a significant number of individuals. Now, for these purposes, they use camera traps that react to movement and take pictures of animals, allowing scientists to determine by color whether an individual caught in the lens of the trap is taken into account. Active study of the Pallas's cat is carried out in the Sailyugem National Park. There you can see this rare animal and even take unique photographs.
The population of Pallas's cat is threatened mainly by anthropogenic factors: poaching and the development of areas inhabited by animals. In 2012, according to the Siberian Ecological Center, about 400 individuals lived in Altai, and now there is a tendency for their numbers to gradually increase. The total number of Pallas' cats in Russia in the 2000s was approximately 3,500 individuals. Pallas' cats are also successfully bred in the Novosibirsk and Moscow zoos (by the way, this particular animal was chosen as the symbol of the Moscow zoo in 2012 through online voting). In the wild in Altai, manul is found on the Ukok plateau and in the foothills of the Chui steppe.
Lifestyle of Pallas's cat
They usually live in the mountains, preferring stone placers and mountain steppes. They are very picky about their habitat, choosing hard-to-reach places where no human has ever set foot. These animals are not inclined to change their home; they often settle in old burrows of small animals or in small caves. They feed on pikas, gophers, voles and birds. They are mostly active during twilight days or in the morning, when they can easily hide for hunting or protection. During the day they sleep in their shelter. Pallas' cats are rather clumsy and slow, they cannot run fast, so their hunting style is characterized by cat-like stalking and hiding. The main enemies of Pallas' cats are herding dogs and hunters, but their existence is also threatened by eagles, foxes, wolves and snow leopards. On average, Pallas' cats live about 12 years. They cannot be tamed, with extremely rare exceptions. It has no practical significance for modern life, but is of scientific interest.
Pallas's cat or manul is a wild animal of the cat family. It lives in China, Mongolia, the Asian republics of the former USSR, as well as in several Siberian regions of Russia. Thanks to his handsome appearance, he became a people's favorite in our country.
Appearance of the Pallas's cat
The size of the Pallas's cat is a little more than half a meter in length. It has a massive body, short and thick legs.
Pallas's cat has thick and long hair (up to 7 centimeters long). In fact, he has the thickest fur of any cat species.
Pallas's eyes are usually yellow. Moreover, the pupils are round in any light, which distinguishes him from ordinary cats, whose pupils become slit-like in bright light.
Another distinctive feature of the Pallas' cat is the long tufts of hair on the cheeks, similar to sideburns.
Habits of a Pallas's cat
Pallas's cat prefers an arid climate, so it lives in steppe and semi-desert areas where there are shrubs. It also does well in low mountains.
Typically, Pallas' cats do not roam and live for a long time in a certain territory.
Leads a nocturnal lifestyle. At night it hunts mice and other rodents. Sometimes it hunts gophers and hares. When there is a seasonal reduction in the number of rodents, it switches to insects (mainly locusts, crickets and grasshoppers). During the day he sleeps in a shelter: in old fox and badger holes.
Due to its short legs and massive body, the Pallas's cat cannot run fast, so it prefers to hide and hide from danger. Most often it climbs cliffs or massive stones.
Although the Pallas' cat looks like a domestic cat, it does not meow. He snorts or purrs hoarsely. Usually these sounds mean that the cat is alarmed.
Habitats
There are three habitats of Pallas's cat in Russia.
The first is in the Chita region between the Argun and Shilka rivers. There are about 2.5 thousand individuals here.
The second focus is Tuva-Altai. It extends from the Republic of Tyva to the southeastern regions of Altai. This habitat is home to 200-300 individuals.
The third is in the forest-steppe part of Buryatia, in the Dzhidinsky, Ivolginsky and Selenginsky regions. Here is the smallest population of Pallas's cat - 50-70 individuals.
The Pallas cat is listed in the Red Book of Russia and has a protection status of “close to endangered”. Hunting for Pallas's cat is completely prohibited.
Traces of the Pallas's cat in Russian culture
In the 1960s, the Pallas' cat was depicted on matchboxes.
In 2008, the Pallas' cat became an Internet meme. An image of him with the caption “Pet the cat!” was popular. Because of the stern look of the Pallas's cat, it was believed that not everyone would dare to pet him.
They are all highly specialized predators; their food is almost 100% meat. One of the typical representatives of this family is our domestic cat. She is probably the only one of them who, over several thousand years of living among people, has become accustomed to some other types of food in addition to meat.
Among the cats there are large animals - lion, tiger; there are small ones, approaching the size of a domestic cat. There are medium ones - leopard, leopard, lynx. There are no very small ones among them. All of them are land dwellers. They live in steppes, deserts, forests, and mountains. Some are good at climbing trees and rest there; others are “friends” with water and love to swim, but still they all spend most of their lives on land. I didn’t have to meet cats in the wild - they are all rare animals today. I became acquainted with their diet and behavior by tracking their tracks, studied literature, archives, and asked old hunters. Three species of wild cats are found in the Altai Mountains. The largest among them is
Snow leopard or snow leopard
Currently in Altai it is a very rare animal. It is preserved in only three or four scattered habitats, isolated from one another over long distances, in the most distant mountain areas. And although the beast is included in all the Red Books that humanity has, its numbers continue to decline - solely thanks to the activities of hunters, our compatriots.
The snow leopard is a medium-sized animal. He is stocky; the height at the shoulders of an adult male is only 60 centimeters, at the sacrum a little higher; body length 105 - 130 cm. Weight of adults - from 30 to 41 kg. The paws are short, thick, strong, especially the front ones, with sharp retractable claws.
Winter fur is lush, soft, warm; The thickest hair is on the long (up to 100 cm) tail, so it appears thick and large. The coat color is light gray, sometimes with a reddish tint. Darker round spots of different sizes are scattered across the gray field. Summer fur is lighter than winter fur. Males and females are similarly colored, although slight individual differences can almost always be found between different individuals.
They live high in the mountains - from 2.0 to 3.0 - 3.2 thousand m, that is, in the alpine belt and mountain tundra, up to the nival belt. They prefer areas with the most rugged terrain. Sometimes they descend into gorges and cliffs, where mountain goats live, to a height of 0.5 - 0.7 thousand meters. Their not so rare exits into the intermountain steppes - Chuyskaya, Kuraiskaya - are also known. This is connected both with the search for prey and with the fall of deep, loose snow higher in the mountains, in which it is difficult for the leopard with his wide but short paws to move.
In Mongolia, in the central part of the modern Dzabkhan aimak, soldiers of the military unit where I was then serving, in 1949, shot a large leopard - a male weighing 42 kg. We accidentally stumbled upon the animal on a plain, 15–20 km from the nearest low treeless mountains. At that time, thousands of steppe antelopes - gazelles - stayed in a wide mountain valley; there was no Mongol population. Apparently, a leopard, and he turned out to be very well-fed - under the skin there was a continuous layer of fat 2-3 cm thick, he descended far to the plain to hunt these antelopes.
Animals make their lairs in small caves, niches under stones, and in other similar places, of which there are plenty in the mountains. They are usually active at night and during twilight. The main object of hunting is the Siberian mountain goat. All known leopard habitats are located near goat habitats. These predators hunt either from ambush, perching on a stone, a rock above a path, or on a salt lick. Sometimes they sneak up to a close distance and catch up with the victim in several large jumps. In addition to mountain goats, leopards hunt for marmots, tolai hares, gophers, pikas, and other small animals. There are known cases of successful attacks on mountain sheep - argali, deer, not only females or young ones, but also adult males, and wild boars. A scientific article describes a case of killing a young moose (young yearling). But all these ungulates are rare, almost occasional prey. Still, the main object of hunting for leopards in the Altai mountains is the Siberian mountain goat.
If wolves take away the remains of their prey, when there is a lot of it, and hide it, which gives the impression that everything has been eaten, nothing is left, then the remains of leopard food, and there are many of them - skin, head, legs, large bones poorly cleaned of meat etc., are scattered over a small area with a radius of 5 - 7 m. Once in the upper reaches of the Akkem River (northern outskirts of the city of Belukha) I discovered a place where several leopards killed and ate three adult mountain goats over the course of 3 - 4 weeks . It was at the end of August, so we can assume that a family of leopards was hunting here - a couple of adults and two or three teenage kittens. On an area measuring approximately 50x50 m, there were many remains of goats, and from a distance three skulls with large, spectacular horns caught the eye. (After cleaning and taking the necessary measurements, I took them to the Zoological Museum.)
Leopards do not reproduce quickly - every year females give birth to from one to three or four kittens; usually there are only two.
These animals are not particularly afraid of humans and are in no hurry to run away when they meet; they can leave calmly, at a pace, as if maintaining dignity. More often than not they run away. In general, it has been noticed that they treat people with some timidity. A case is described in which a woman, the shepherd’s wife, had attacked a sheep (in a pen) and was eating it by the leopard, and was dragged away from the prey by the tail. The beast did not try to snarl or resist; The men who came running to the noise killed him. Attacks on humans are extremely rare - it could be a rabid animal. It is known about an attack in Kyrgyzstan by an old, almost toothless, emaciated leopard on a man, who killed him with a stick, as well as a man with rabies, who managed to slightly cripple two hunters before he was killed. There is no information about attacks on people by normal, healthy leopards.
Currently, the snow leopard in the Altai Mountains, according to expert estimates, is on the verge of extinction. Despite all the prohibitions, poachers kill several leopards every year. In areas, even if they are protected areas (sanctuaries, natural parks), there is no protection for these animals today. The situation is slightly better in two reserves, Altai and Katunsky, but leopards do not stay on their territories unless some stray accidentally passes by - these animals are prone to long, albeit rare, exits from their usual habitats.
Cases of illegal mining are usually discovered during the transportation of skins or in markets where they are trying to sell them at a high price. Over the past decades, not a single poacher has been detained directly while hunting leopards.
Fortunately for us and the leopards themselves, these magnificent cats are not in danger of completely disappearing from the face of the earth; in some places they are still protected, including in the Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve in southern Siberia; they are still found in the mountains in western Mongolia. Maybe they will survive somewhere in natural conditions. But the main hope is zoos. In the last decades of the last century, these animals began to appear in various zoos around the world. In conditions of captivity, with good care, they feel good, are quite easily tamed (after just a few days the animal allows the person caring for it to enter the cage and even pet itself), and reproduce normally. Nowadays there are already more than a thousand animals in zoos, zoos, zoos exchange animals, sell them, and an International Stud Book is maintained.
The work with snow leopards at the Novosibirsk Zoo is well done; they have been bred there since 1964. In the last 10 years alone, 38 cubs have been born.
Thanks to zoos, there is hope that in the future, near or far, when our compatriots - shepherds, shepherds, border guards, participants in all kinds of expeditions, leaders of various ranks “ripe” to understand the need, the importance of preserving these beautiful animals in the Altai Mountains, zoo leopards will be possible after appropriate preparation of them for life in the wild, repopulate suitable lands in the mountains...
In conclusion, here is the opinion of our famous scientist, expert on wild cats, Professor Arkady Aleksandrovich Sludsky about the snow leopard: “... the harm it causes to livestock and hunting is insignificant, and for humans it is completely harmless. At the same time, the snow leopard is a decoration of our mountains and is of great scientific value.”
Inhabitant of the highlands - shaggy manul cat
It is the size of an ordinary domestic cat, but due to its long thick fluffy fur it appears noticeably larger and more massive. The paws are short and thick; tail 20 - 25 cm long. Body length 50 - 65 cm, weight up to 3 - 4 kg. The color is light to dark gray, with a red tint on the sides. The thick tail, due to its long fur, has clearly visible transverse dark stripes; its end is black.
Pallas's cat is widespread mainly to the south of the borders of our country - in Mongolia, the western part of China, and throughout Central Asia. Lives in Northern India. In Russia it is not numerous and is found only in the extreme south of Siberia - from Altai to Transbaikalia. There are very few of these animals in the Altai Mountains. They live in the extreme southeast, in the mountains and mountain steppes in the outskirts of the Chui, and partly the Kurai, intermountain basins.
The Pallas's cat lives in treeless mountains, at altitudes from 1.8 to 2.7 - 2.8 thousand m, in steppe and even deserted mountain steppes with stone placers and rocks. He really doesn’t like deep and even loose snow, since in such conditions it is difficult for him to move on short legs. In its habitats, marmots, gophers, pikas, voles and other small mouse-like animals are common; all of them are his main prey (marmots are only young ones; he does not attack adults, and they are not afraid of him). Sometimes it catches tolai hares, some birds - partridges, choughs, saj and others. By the beginning of winter, it usually eats well, gets fat, and becomes inactive. Knows how to hide perfectly, even in an almost clean place.
For shelters it uses marmot holes, crevices and similar suitable places. When in danger, he tries to hide, but he runs slowly and, if he fails to jump into the hole in time, falls on his back and boldly defends himself, mainly with his claws; can easily go on the offensive. Bears offspring once a year, in the spring. Kittens are most often from four to six, although sometimes there are more.
The small animal has many enemies: wolves, foxes, eagles, snow leopard. The most terrible are hunters, as well as herding dogs.
In the last century and earlier, the Pallas's cat was considered an ordinary fur-bearing animal; hunters hunted it and sold the skins, although they paid little for them. During Soviet rule in the Altai Mountains, the most skins were purchased in the 30s, on average 80 pieces. per year. Subsequently, fewer and fewer of them arrived, and by the end of the 60s, procurement stopped. In the late 80s, hunting for Pallas's cat was banned; in 1996, the animal was included in the Red Book of the Altai Republic; even earlier - in the Red Book of the RSFSR.
The Pallas's cat is an interesting, unique animal, still little studied. Now it is very rare, in recent years, although not in Altai, but to the east, in Khakassia, its range has even expanded. This may be due to climate warming. There is hope that the animal will remain in the wild. It is also bred in zoos. In Novosibirsk, too, it feels good and reproduces successfully.
Unlike the leopard and the lynx, it is not tamed well, with the exception of individual individuals that fall into the hands of good people soon after birth. However, it is possible that he was simply not kept in captivity for long, and even if he was kept by local residents, their experience, with very rare exceptions, was not reflected in the literature. The animal is also more demanding when it comes to its diet - even foods that seem to be attractive to many predators, such as fish, eggs, milk; an adult Pallas' cat, as a rule, refuses to eat.
Due to the small number of Pallas' cats, it currently has no practical significance in our lives. It is of great interest to science.
G.G. Sobansky, biologist. From the book “Essays and Stories about Wild Animals of Altai.”
