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0ne of the most mysterious of the small wild cats is Otocolobus manul, the beautiful long-haired Pallas’s Cat, or manul, of Central Asia. Once hunted for its fur in
Mongolia in alarming numbers, conservationists know little about this species current status. The IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group and the AZA Felid Taxon Action Group have both called for in situ studies and conservation programs for this vulnerable felid. On the plains of central Mongolia, for the first time, radio-collars have been fitted on wild Pallas cats, and this project will be able to establish their home range, habitat preferences, daily activity patterns, intraspecies relations, prey selection, and current distribution. The project is run by a team of Mongolian field biologists and students. Participation of Mongolian students, teachers, and park rangers nationally for the distribution survey, will promote awareness of the cat’s threatened status. Additional collection of biological samples from the wild cats will enable collaborative physiologic and genetic comparative studies with the North American zoo captive Pallas’ cats, which exhibit extreme neonatal mortality due to Toxoplasmosis.
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