Chinese Mountain Cat

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The **Chinese mountain cat** (*Felis bieti*), also known as the **Chinese desert cat** and the **Chinese steppe cat**, is a wild cat of western China that has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2002, as the effective population size may be fewer than 10,000 mature breeding individuals.

It was classified as a wildcat subspecies in 2007, *F. silvestris bieti*, based on genetic analysis.

## Characteristics

The Chinese mountain cat has sand-coloured fur with dark guard hairs. Faint dark horizontal stripes on the face and legs are hardly visible. Its ears have black tips. It has a relatively broad skull, and long hair growing between the pads of their feet. It is whitish on the belly, and its legs and tail bear black rings. The tip of the tail is black. It is Template:Convert long in head and body with a Template:Convert long tail. Adults weigh from Template:Convert.

## Distribution and habitat

The Chinese mountain cat is endemic to China and lives on the north-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It was recorded only in eastern Qinghai and north-western Sichuan.
It inhabits high-elevation steppe grassland, alpine meadow, alpine shrubland and coniferous forest edges between Template:Convert elevation. It has not been confirmed in true desert or heavily forested mountains.

The first photographs of a wild Chinese mountain cat were taken by camera traps during light snow in May 2007 at
Template:Convert altitude in Sichuan. These photographs were taken in rolling grasslands and brush-covered mountains. One individual was observed and photographed in May 2015 in the Ruoergai grasslands.

## Ecology and behaviour

The Chinese mountain cat is active at night and preys on pikas, rodents and birds. It breeds between January and March. Females give birth to two to four kittens in a secluded burrow.

Until 2007, the Chinese mountain cat was known only from six individuals, all living in Chinese zoos, and a few skins in museums.

## Threats

The Chinese mountain cat is threatened due to the organised poisoning of pikas. The poison used diminishes prey species, and also kills cats unintentionally.

## Conservation

*Felis bieti* is listed on CITES Appendix II. It is protected in China.

## Taxonomic history

Alphonse Milne-Edwards first described the Chinese mountain cat in 1892 based on a skin collected in Tibet. He named it *Felis Bieti* after the French missionary Félix Biet.

Some authorities consider the *chutuchta* and *vellerosa* subspecies of the wildcat as Chinese mountain cat subspecies.

## See also

* List of endangered and protected species of China

## External links

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* IUCN Cat Specialist Group: Chinese mountain cat *Felis bieti*

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Template:IUCN
2. ↑ Template:Cite journal
3. ↑ Template:Cite book
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 He, L., Garcia-Perea, R., Li M., Wei, F. (2004). Distribution and conservation status of the endemic Chinese mountain cat *Felis bieti*. Oryx 38: 55–61.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Liao Y. (1988). *Some biological information of desert cat in Qinhai*. Acta Theriologica Sinica 8: 128–131.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Yin Y., Drubgyal N., Achu, Lu Z., Sanderson J. (2007). *First photographs in nature of the Chinese mountain cat*. Cat News 47: 6–7.
7. ↑ Francis, S., Muzika, Y. (2015). Chinese Mountain Cat in the Ruoergai Grasslands. Small Wild Cat Conservation News 1 (1): II.
8. ↑ Milne-Edwards, A. (1892). *Observations sur les mammifères du Thibet*. Revue générale des sciences pures et appliquées. Tome III: 670–671.
9. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `msw3`