In Siberia, four cute Pallas cats, born one month old, have been sighted and immortalized. Unfortunately, this species faces extinction
From Siberia comes a series of very sweet images: four puppies of Pallas's cat (whose scientific name Otocolobus manul), an endangered species of feline, nestled in a rocky cove, probably waiting for the mother to return to feed them.
The photos, taken by some local residents in the Altai Republic, were posted on WWF Russia's social channels.
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One manul can give birth to up to 10 kittens. - explains the environmental organization - The young are about a month old and the mother feeds them with milk, but most likely she is already starting to bring them prey, the pikas (small mammals that live in mountain areas). one of the most reserved in Russia, seeing an entire litter in the wild is a real success.
Currently, no one knows exactly how many specimens of this species live in Russia. The last census dates back to 2009. Unfortunately, these adorable furballs have to deal with various threats, starting with poaching and fires that frequently break out in the steppe.
Manula kittens, Altai
Hey, don't stand too close, I'm a manul, not a pussycat... Little fluffy lumps are manul kittens. Four kittens is not enough, a Pallas cat can have up to ten kittens in a litter. Babies are about a month old, while their mother feeds them with milk, but, most likely, she is already starting to bring them prey - pikas. Manul is one of the most secretive cats in Russia, to see a whole brood in the wild is a real success. Residents of the Kosh-Agach district of the Altai Republic, in the territory bordering Mongolia, came across the lair of the manul family. The mother of the kittens, most likely, went hunting. Without disturbing the kittens, the residents recorded a short video and left. Today, no one knows exactly what is the number of manul in Russia. The last population count of the species took place in 2009. These amazing cats are threatened by poaching: the manul can settle in the burrows of marmots, where it falls into traps set for rodents by local residents, the manul suffers from steppe fires, which have become more frequent in the face of climate change, stray dogs and pastoral dogs cause damage to the populations of manuls, animals can get poisoned , eating rodents poisoned for the sake of pest control of the fields. WWF-Russia plans to start work on the conservation of the species in our country.
Posted by WWF Russia on Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Poaching threatens these fantastic cats: Pallas's cat can settle in marmot burrows, where it falls into rodent traps set by local residents. Pallas's cat is also endangered by wildfires in the steppe, which have become more frequent due to climate change. In addition, he is threatened by stray dogs and by dogs of livestock breeders. It also happens that these animals die after ingesting rodents that have been poisoned by the products used to protect crops.
In short, sighting Pallas' cats is truly a rarity!
Source: WWF
Read also:
- 5 mysterious wild cats you may never have heard of
- Koshlandia, the Russian farm that is home to "a million or more" of fluffy Siberian cats
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