<h1>Introduction: A feline that is even rarer than the snow leopard, too timid to find a distant object</h1>
The snow leopard is a very beautiful cat in nature, at the beginning, we thought the leopard was very beautiful, but until you have seen the snow leopard, you will find that in fact, the leopard is just average. Snow leopard with white hair, plus black markings, the overall appearance of a more symmetrical tone, in addition, snow leopard hair fluffy soft, very comfortable to touch, which led to the early years of extensive hunting for skin, so that the snow leopard population was once endangered.
But the cat we are going to talk about today is more beautiful than the snow leopard, and it is also rarer than the snow leopard, and this cat is the Andean mountain tiger cat, also called the South American bobcat or the mountain cat. The South American bobcat weighs about 4 kilograms, which is no different from the average domestic cat, but from the appearance, it can be seen at a glance that the South American bobcat has a cat-like figure, but it is wearing a snow leopard-like coat, to put it bluntly, it is a smaller version of the snow leopard, which becomes more cute and cute.
The South American bobcat has a silver-gray shiny fur, which can be said to be beautiful to glow, with snow leopard-like spots on the body, a well-proportioned body, a relatively large head, and a very round, looking tiger-headed, very cute. In addition, other characteristics of the Andean tiger cat are basically similar to those of ordinary cats, such as toes, the claws on the feet can be freely retracted and so on. At present, people do not know much about the South American Bobcat, after all, the research data is very limited.
Because the South American bobcats live in a very low area, they are mainly distributed in the Andes Mountains of South America, preferring to inhabit rocky areas and sparse vegetation, so humans do not often encounter them. Although humans have long known about such a small cat, they were not photographed until 1980, and the second time they were photographed, it was 20 years later. So can a South American bobcat swim? At present, there is still controversy on the Internet.
Although the South American bobcat is more squeamish, but in the food, but it is not picky at all, it is similar to the short-tailed cat, are opportunists in the feline, catch what to eat, when they can't catch something, eat carrion or insects. South American bobcats can adapt to the alpine climate, hunting in these places, generally not much chase, mainly by ambush. South American bobcats are very sharp in sight and hearing, able to detect subtle squirming and then launch attacks to capture food.
The number of South American bobcats is about 10,000 or so in terms of number, while the global number of South American bobcats is only 2500, which can be said to be very small compared to this number, which is equivalent to the number of snow leopards in China. Although the South American Bobcat is a miniature version of the snow leopard, it cannot be compared with the snow leopard in terms of personality or hunting skills. The snow leopard is fierce, while the South American bobcat is very timid, and a little external stimulus can scare it.
South American bobcats only like to live on high mountains, but humans like to live in valleys, such a distribution constitutes a special distribution map, such as the valley between the two mountains, living humans, so that the original two mountains connected, there is a separation belt, the South American bobcats are divided into two groups, because the South American bobcats are more timid, so they do not have the courage to cross the area of human life to find objects in the distance, resulting in a decline in reproductive ability and a further reduction in number.
In addition, in some areas of Chile and Bolivia, the Andean tiger cat will also be hunted, and then used for some kind of sacrifice activities, which will further reduce their number, so the current number of South American bobcats is very unoptimistic, coupled with its own reproductive ability is not very strong, so it is a endangered cat, in urgent need of artificial rescue. But because the viability and adaptability of the South American bobcat is as tricky as the snow leopard, artificial conservation work can only be carried out in specific environments and spaces, and cannot be expanded.
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