The Geoffroy's Cat
Felis (Oncifelis) geoffroyi d'Orbigny and Gervais

Named after the French naturalist Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Geoffroy’s cat is a small, lightly built, spotted cat which is highly variable in coloration. The northern animals are a brilliant ochre, while the southern ones are more silvery grey, known as the silver phase (Law and Boyle 1983).
The round spots may merge to form indistinct stripes. There are often several black streaks on the crown, and two on each cheek.
Ringed towards the tip, the tail is spotted near the base.
O. g. salinarum the Salt Desert cat (or gato de las salinas) of northern Argentina has very faint spots.
Males are heavier than females, in the ratio of about five to three, but they are generally about the same size as a domestic cat. The largest individuals are found near the Rio Gallegos in Patagonia.
The ears are rounded, and the backs are black with a white central spot. The skull is very short, wide and convex, with a minute anterior upper premolar.
All-black or melanistic specimens are quite common; melanism is controlled by a single dominant allele (Brooks 1992).
Long known as a member of the Felis genus it has also been placed with the ocelot as a Leopardus species. Species in the Leopardus and Oncifelis genera have only 36 chromosomes, other cats have 38 (Scheffel and Hemmer 1975). It has also been placed in the same genus (Oncifelis) as the closely related pampas cat and the kodkod (C. Wozencraft. A Taxonomy of the Felidae. Cat News 18, 1993, p. 24).
Five subspecies have been described:

Versatile in its utilisation of habitats, Geoffroy’s cat is at home in scrub woodlands, open bush, rocky terrain and riverine forest. Recorded at Cochabamba in the Bolivian Andes at 3500 metres, its geographical range covers practically all of the continent of South America south of the Gran Chaco in Uruguay and Paraguay, the Brazilian Rio Grande do Sul and the mountains of southern Bolivia, northern Chile and Jujuy in northwest Argentina. It is not found further south than the Straits of Magellan.
The map shows the distribution of Geoffroy’s Cats in grey.
The map is based on information in the Wild Cats Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan published by the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group in 1996. See our Books page for more details.

Geoffroy’s cats hunt small birds, lizards, insects and rodents. They will eat eggs and in captivity have been observed to chew green hay stems. Cats eat vegetation to aid digestion and to assist vomiting and the elimination of fur balls.

Solitary and mainly terrestrial, Geoffroy’s cats are great tree climbers and in captivity have been seen to walk upside down along a branch and also to hang by their back feet. It has been said that they also sleep and hunt in trees and that they are good swimmers.
Their activity patterns seem to be very flexible and they have been seen abroad during the day as well as at night.
A young female Geoffroy’s cat was discovered to utilise a home range of less than 1.8 km² (Berrie 1978). This is probably larger than most adult ranges, as adults occupy the better habitats, with more prey and do not need to hunt over such a large area.

Oestrus lasts from between two and six days.
Two to three kittens are born after a gestation period of usually 62 to 65 days, although periods as long as 76 days have been recorded (Anderson 1977). The kittens are born in a den in a root cavity, rock crevice or a clump of bushes. They weigh about 65 grammes or more at birth. Their eyes are open at eight days and they can walk at 14 to 21 days.
Geoffroy’s kittens develop very slowly in comparison to domestic cats and reach sexual maturity after about 14 months.

Unfortunately Geoffroy’s cats make beautiful fur coats and have been in very great demand. Thousands have been killed for their skins, becoming popular when Jaguar, Ocelot and Margay pelt trading was restricted under CITES.

Caldwell (1984) reported that at the peak of their exploitation 72,000 skins were declared to have been exported from Paraguay in 1981. In 1989 9,000 exported pelts were recorded by CITES.
Brooks (1992) reported that numbers of Geoffroy’s cats were still declining. They remain most numerous in the Paraguayan Chaco.
F.(O.) g. euxantha is considered to be extremely rare.
Geoffroy’s cats have now been placed on Appendix I of CITES.

A captive breeding programme needs to have regard to keeping separate the various subspecies, while at the same time avoiding the dangers of inbreeding.
This is achieved by the maintenance of a studbook which is used to select suitable breeding partners for captive animals. Such studbooks are maintained on a voluntary basis by dedicated individuals or teams at various zoos around the world.

Northwood Felid Research and Education Foundation is devoted to the study and conservation of the Geoffroy’s cat.