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Otocolobus manul
– Near Threatened
Taxonomy
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Kingdom:
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ANIMALIA
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Phylum:
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CHORDATA
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Class:
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MAMMALIA
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Order:
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CARNIVORA
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Family:
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FELIDAE
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Scientific Name:
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Otocolobus manul
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Species Authority:
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(Pallas, 1776)
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Infra-specific Taxa Assessed:
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See Otocolobus manul ssp. ferrugineus
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Common Name/s:
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PALLAS'S CAT (Eng)
CHAT MANUL (Fre)
GATO DE PALLAS (Spa)
GATO MANUL (Spa)
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Taxonomic Notes:
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Likely to be transferred to Felis.
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Assessment Information
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Red List Category & Criteria:
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NT ver 3.1 (2001)
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Year Assessed:
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2002
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Assessor/s:
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Cat Specialist Group
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Evaluator/s:
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Nowell, K., Breitenmoser, U., Breitenmoser, C. & Jackson, P. (Cat Red List Authority)
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Justification:
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Based on estimates of density and geographic range (Nowell and Jackson 1996), the manul’s total effective population size is estimated at below 50,000 mature breeding individuals, with a declining trend due to degradation of its habitat and prey base, and may possibly qualify as Vulnerable if these trends persist, or if better information on its status and range were available.
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History:
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| 1994 | - | Insufficiently Known (Groombridge 1994) |
| 1996 | - | Lower Risk/least concern (Baillie and Groombridge 1996) |
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Geographic Range
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Range Description:
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The manul is still widely distributed through the grassland steppes the Mongolian region of Central Asia, but populations are more sparse and threatened in the southwestern parts of its range, in the region of the Caspian Sea, and in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
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Countries:
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Native:
Afghanistan; Armenia; China; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Mongolia; Pakistan; Russian Federation; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan
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Population
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Population:
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It occurs throughout the Tibetan plateau but is nowhere common (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
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Population Trend:
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Habitat and Ecology
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Habitat and Ecology:
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The species is adapted to cold arid environments, and is most abundant on the cold grasslands of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. Although it has been found at altitudes up to 4,800 m, it does not occur at such high elevations as the snow leopard, and is more strongly associated with flat, rolling steppe and south-facing slopes where deep snow cover does not accumulate. It is generally absent from lowland sandy desert basins, although it may penetrate these areas along seasonal river courses (Nowell and Jackson 1996). Small southern populations in Baluchistan, isolated from the main population, occur in montane juniper steppe (Nowell and Jackson 1996, Husain 2001). The first radio-telemetry study of this species began in Mongolia in 2000 (M. Brown and B. Munkhtsog pers. comm.).
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System:
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Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine
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Threats
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Threats:
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The manul has long been hunted for its fur in relatively large numbers (Nowell and Jackson 1996), although international trade in manul pelts has declined in recent years. Poisoning to control pika populations has taken place on a large scale in parts of the Russian Federation where they are considered to be vectors for plague, and parts of China where they are considered to compete with domestic stock for graze (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
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Conservation Actions
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Conservation Actions:
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Included on CITES Appendix II. Hunting of this species is prohibited in Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
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