![]() However, margays do sometimes hunt on the ground, and have been reported to eat terrestrial prey, such as guinea pigs. It is able to hunt its prey entirely in trees. It also hunts Ingram's squirrel, eats grass, fruit and other vegetation, most likely to help digestion. ![]() Diet ĭietary studies based on stomach contents and fecal analysis showed that it feeds on small mammals including monkeys, birds, eggs, lizards, tree frogs and arthropods. Additionally, scientists that have conducted behavioral studies on margays found that population density was higher in environments with substantial amount of trees and minimal human disturbance. Morphological adaptation such as these is a strong indication that the margay is well equipped to thrive in ecosystems such as rainforests in which vegetation provides the wild with protection from possible threats. They also utilize their long tails to maintain balance while climbing. It can turn its ankles up to 180 degrees, so it can grasp branches equally well with its fore and hind paws, and it is able to jump up to 12 ft (3.7 m) horizontally. It spends most of the time in trees, leaping after and chasing birds and monkeys through the treetops. The margay is a skillful climber, and colloquially it is sometimes called the tree ocelot because of this ability. Behavior and ecology A margay photographed in Turvo State Park, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil įossil evidence of margays or margay-like cats dubbed Leopardus amnicola has been found in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina dating to the Pleistocene, suggesting that they had an even wider distribution in the past. Fossil margay remains have been collected in Pleistocene deposits in Orange County, Texas, along the Sabine River, and it is thought to have ranged over considerable portions of southern Texas at one time. The margay's presence in the United States is considered "uncertain" by the IUCN Red List. The only record from the US was collected sometime before 1852 near Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas, and it is currently considered locally extinct in Texas. The margay has sometimes been observed in coffee and cocoa plantations. ![]() It inhabits almost exclusively dense forests, ranging from tropical evergreen forest to tropical dry forest and high cloud forest. The southern edge of its range reaches Uruguay and northern Argentina. In Mexico it has been recorded in 24 of the 32 states, ranging northward up the coastal lowlands and Sierra Madres as far north as of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas on the US border in the east and southern Sonora in the west. The margay is distributed from the tropical lowlands in Mexico through Central America to Brazil and Paraguay. The backs of the ears are black with circular white markings in the centre. ![]() The undersides are paler, ranging from buff to white, and the tail has numerous dark bands and a black tip. Its fur is brown and marked with numerous rows of dark brown or black rosettes and longitudinal streaks. Unlike most other cats, the female possesses only two teats. It weighs from 2.6 to 4 kg (5.7 to 8.8 lb), with a body length of 48 to 79 cm (19 to 31 in) and a tail length of 33 to 51 cm (13 to 20 in). The margay is very similar to the larger ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis) in appearance, although the head is a little shorter, the eyes larger, and the tail and legs longer. The scientific name Felis wiedii was used by Heinrich Rudolf Schinz in 1821 in his first scientific description of the margay, in honour of Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, who collected specimens in Brazil. Since 2008, the margay has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List because the population is thought to be declining due to loss of habitat following deforestation. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted illegally for the wildlife trade, which resulted in a large population decrease. A solitary and nocturnal cat, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. The margay ( Leopardus wiedii) is a small wild cat native to Central and South America. ![]()
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