Geographic Range
China

Description and Behavior
The Chinese mountain cat lives only in China, and it is one of the least-known cats. It has a stocky build, with relatively short legs. Its coat is pale grey-fawn in winter, somewhat darker brown in the summer, and marked with indistinct horizontal stripes on the sides and legs. Its ears have slight dark brown tufts. The tail is fairly short, only 13.8 inches (35 cm) long and about 40% of head-body length, and it has 5-6 dark grey bands and a black tip. The ears are moderately large, measuring about 25% of total skull length. A wild male and female brought to the Beijing Zoo weighed 19.9 and 14.3 lbs (9 and 6.5 kg) respectively.

What little is known of this species in the wild is mainly due to the efforts of collectors from the Xining Zoo, who obtained 34 specimens between 1973-1985. Chinese mountain cats are predominantly nocturnal, active from dusk to dawn in captivity, and they hunt primarily in the early morning and evening in the wild. They rest and take care of their young in burrows, typically located on south-facing slopes. Males and females live separately, and the burrows inhabited by females tend to be deeper and more secure, with only one entrance.

Scat analysis indicates that rodents are the major prey (90%), primarily mole-rats, white-tailed pine vole, and pikas. Birds, including pheasants, are also caught. Mountain cats have been observed hunting mole rats by listening for their movements through their subterranean tunnels (1.2-2 inches, or 3-5 cm below the surface), and digging them out.

Biology
Reproductive season: January-March mating season, litters often born in May.
Litter size: 2-4.
Age at independence: 7-8 months.

Habitat and Distribution
The Chinese mountain cat is known only from the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It has been collected most frequently from Qinghai province, but also from the mountains of southern Gansu and northern Sichuan. Reports of it occurring further north and east, in flatter, more desert-like terrain probably refer respectively to misidentified specimens of Asiatic wildcat and domestic cat. It may occur along the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, in the desert mountains of Xinjiang, but such reports have yet to be confirmed. The southernmost records near Chengdu are from the same sort of area where the giant panda is found, an entirely different habitat type consisting of montane bamboo forest. These specimens, obtained in the late 1800s in the fur markets of Tatsienlu and Sungpan (Sichuan province), were probably not locally obtained, and it has been speculated that they came from "the borderlands of the extreme western edge of China or even from Tibet."

According to one researcher, the Chinese mountain cat is found throughout the Datong and Daban mountains around Xining (where eight skins were collected in 1893), at elevations ranging from 9,186-13,451 feet (2,800-4,100 m). It chiefly inhabits alpine meadows and scrub. It has also been found in hilly loess steppe and coniferous forest edge. Despite its traditional name (Chinese desert cat), it appears not to be a desert cat at all, although it may occur there marginally.

Population Status
Global: Category 2. Regional (Asia): Category 1. IUCN: Insufficiently Known. There is no information on status or abundance, and no records of occurrence in protected areas. The Chinese mountain cat appears to have a very limited distribution, but may have a much wider range further west on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. It is interesting that most of the collected animals came from mountainous areas very close to Xining and Lanzhou, the capitals of Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

Protection Status
CITES Appendix II. National legislation: fully protected in China. The species is currently classified as a Category II species under Chinese law, and the 1992 meeting of the Cat Specialist Group in Beijing recommended upgrading to Category I, which requires permission of national, rather than provincial, authorities to hunt or trade.

Principal Threats
Large-scale poisoning campaigns have been conducted since 1958 in China in an attempt to control "pest" populations of pikas, which are viewed as competitors of domestic livestock for graze. Zinc phosphide was one of the main chemicals used, from the onset of control efforts up until 1978, when its use was discontinued because it was discovered that it also killed carnivores that preyed on pikas. Control programs using poisonous chemicals continue throughout much of the Chinese mountain cat's range, and have eradicated pikas from large areas.

However, research has indicated that pikas reach their greatest densities and cause greatest damage when rangeland has already been significantly degraded by domestic stock, suggesting that the authorities could most effectively control pika populations by focusing their efforts on measures to prevent overgrazing. Healthy predator populations should serve to limit pika numbers, as pikas are an important food source for a variety of carnivores and birds of prey.

No other threats are known. Pelts of this species can be commonly found in markets in Xining, two mounted specimens were for sale in southern China. It would seem unlikely, however, that hunting efforts specifically target the mountain cat.
 
 

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