A mysterious feline was seen for the first time in the Himalayas (PHOTO)
A camera installed in Wangchuck Centennial Park (WCP), a nature reserve which hosts species such as the snow leopard and Himalayan black bear, managed to photograph one Manul (Otocolobus Manul ), feline known as Pallas's cat (after German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who first described it in 1776).According to experts from World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is the first time that Pallas's cat is captured in this region."This is a remarkable discovery, confirming that lives next door and the eastern Himalayas," said Shrestha Rinjani, a scientist from the WWF. "This indicates, most likely, that it is a habitat undisturbed by human presence, which not only gives us hope Manul but for snow leopard, Tibetan wolf and other endangered species living in the area "added the researcher.
Pallas's cat is a primitive species that has evolved greatly in the last 5 million years. The animal is the size of a domestic cat and partially resembles a Persian cat with flat face and a thick fur, which allows it to survive at high altitudes. Gray fur and dark spots on the head allow it to blend into the landscape Manuli mountains of Central Asia.Images were captured after a WWF team, aided by park officials in Bhutan, installed more cameras to study snow leopards in the region. Pallas's cats away from certain areas of Central Asia , and around the Caspian Sea region and Baluchistan province of Pakistan, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said one species as threatened with extinction. Manuli hunt poachers for their fur and fat and organs that are used in traditional treatments of Mongolia and China.Kingdom of Bhutan is a good hiding place for these animals for more than 60% of the country is forested, and a quarter of the land area is designated as a national park or protected area.
A Manul from Rotterdam Zoo
A female who lives in the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent, UK
A Manul at Zurich Zoo
