Pallas's cat subspecies
Please help me understand the external differences between the three varieties of Pallas's cat. I didn’t really understand much from the descriptions online.
And I’m also curious: in zoos, are these subspecies kept apart when mating, or is this not taken into account when pairing them up?
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From my understanding, there are 3 subspecies mentioned on the site: Otocolobus manul manul (Zelenogorsk, Lev, etc.), Otocolobus manul nigripectus (Sun Sanlang, Sun Daniang, etc.) and Otocolobus manul ferrugineus (Nano, Mano).
I think nigipectus pallases have darker fur (especially in the chest area) compared to manul pallases and ferrugineus pallases are the orange colour variant.
There appears to be hybridization between the subspecies in zoos: Bor/Bol is probably the most famous example: His mother Tabby was a nigripectus pallas and his dad Oscar a manul pallas.
grushalevson, I still never figured out nigripectus.
The word itself means “black-chested.”
Wikipedia says: “It is characterized by a grayish coat, which in winter takes on a distinct silvery-gray hue. The black stripes are more pronounced.”
But isn’t a grayish coat characteristic of the subspecies manul manul?
Take Grusha, for example:
We can see both a dark chest and bright stripes. So is he nigriectus?
And then there’s Tabby:
She is listed as nigripectus, but in terms of coloration she is completely indistinguishable from other gray manuls.
And then there’s Pepe:
She is quite dark, which means that, according to the description, she too should be nigripectus. But she is manul manul.