The Pampas Cat
Felis (Oncifelis) colocolo Molina

Resembling Felis silvestris, the pampas cat has a broad face and distinctly pointed ears. A robust animal it has long fur which may even form a mane on its back up to 7 cm long. They look like large, stocky domestic cats. Coloration is variable from yellowish white to greyish brown. Bands of yellow or brown run obliquely from the back to the flanks and there is a brown band running around the upper part of the forelegs. Pampas cats have pink noses. Darker individuals have been seen which have red areas or spots and some which are almost unpatterned. Melanistic or all black specimens have also been recorded. The backs of the ears are grey; in the northern animals there is also a white central spot; the more southerly ones are unmarked. Black rings mark the tail. Two brown bars run from the eyes across the cheeks and meet beneath the throat. The skull is short and notably convex with the nasal region very compressed; the nasal bones are very narrow. The anterior upper premolar is absent.
It is believed that Molina named this species after an Araucanian warrior chief (Colocolo).
In Argentina, the pampas cat is known as the “gato pajero” or grass cat. García-Perea (1994) states that pajeros is the Spanish for straw, and that they often live in reed beds.
Wozencraft (1993) classified this species in the genus Oncifelis, highlighting the close relationship the pampas cat has with the other members of this genus (Geoffroy’s cat O. geoffroyi and the kodkod, O. guigna). It has been known as a member of the Felis and Lynchailurus genera. In addition, the specific name pajeros has been used.
Seven subspecies have been described:

The Chilean subspecies are more distinctly marked than the Argentinian individuals. The definition of the subspecies of many animals is the subject of considerable systematic controversy. Very few specimens of pampas cats exist, and classifications are sometimes based on much speculation.
 
García-Perea (1994) examined remains and reports for morphological variations. She discovered three types of pampas cat and proposes that the differences between them are sufficient to warrant separate specific status. She acknowledges that they may be well-developed subspecies, but points out that the variation within these types may indicate that they have been genetically isolated for a long period.
 
García-Perea disputes Wozencraft’s (1993) classifications, and places the pampas cat in the Lynchailurus genus.
García-Perea’s (1994) classification:
 
L. colocolo Molina 1782.
(a) Large animals, with oblique rusty/cinnamon lines on the flanks. The tail has four or five reddish rings; ventral markings rusty ochreous on a white background; feet cinnamon.
(b) Large animals with reddish-brown rosettes on the flanks, tail ringed from base to tip; ventral marking dark brown on a white background; feet similar to the ground colour of the body.
This species is restricted to the west side of the Andes in the highland steppes and subtropical forests.
 
L. pajeros Desmarest 1816.
(a) Medium-sised animals, with reddish-brown rosettes on the flanks, tail ringed from base to tip; ventral marking dark brown on a white background; feet similar to the ground colour of the body.
(b) Medium-sized animals, similar to the last but paler and much less distinctly marked. Ventral markings dark brown.
(c) Medium-sized animals, almost uniformly grayish, usually with no sign of spots or rings on body and tail. Ventral markings are dark brown.
This is the most widely distributed of the three species, found from Patagonia all the way up the eastern slopes of the Andes as far as Ecuador.
 
L. braccatus Cope 1889.
(a)Small animals, almost uniformly brown agouti coloured dorsally, but with traces of dark brown rosettes on the flanks. The tail has a black tip and the feet have black “socks”.
(b) Small animals, more yellowish in colour and with more noticeable spots. The tail; has a black tip and the feet are black behind and beneath only.
This species is found only in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in humid and warmer grasslands and forests
 
For a more detailed account see Cat News No. 20 (April 1994) pp. 21-24 on which this note is based.

As its English name suggests, this cat is a creature of open grass and scrub country. It is also found in several types of forest, usually of the more open sort. It is not found in lowland rainforest areas, but ranges in the mountains to an altitude of 5000m. Although the map shows the range as continuous, it is by no means certain that this is the case; in fact if the suggestion that there are three species of Pampas cat is correct the populations are likely to be separate.
The map shows the distribution of Pampas 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.

Pampas cats are thought to feed mainly on small mammals such as guinea pigs, but it is known that they also take ground-dwelling birds and they have been seen to take penguin eggs and chicks from nests in Patagonia.

Thought to be mainly nocturnal, Pampas Cats have also been seen to be active during the day. They are good climbers though whether they use that ability for hunting or merely to escape from predators is not certain.

Unknown, they probably have two to three kittens.

At the Symposium on the Conservation Status of Chilean Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna in Santiago, April 1987, the Pampas cat was declared to be officially Endangered (Endangered Cats in Chile. Cat News 10, 1989, p. 6). However, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) does not classify the pampas cat as a threatened species. Brooks (1992), states that they have a very restricted range and are not common. García-Perea (1984) writes that her L. colocolo has a very limited distribution and is therefore probably endangered.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have restricted international commerce in products of the pampas cat, by listing on Appendix II. The trade in skins has been quite extensive, more than 26,000 were recorded as traded in 1980.