Felis chaus affinis

Felis chaus affinis is a jungle cat subspecies.[1] It was described by British zoologist John Edward Gray in 1830 based on an illustration by Thomas Hardwicke.[2]

South Asian jungle cat
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Felinae
Genus: Felis
Species:
F. chaus
Subspecies:
F. c. affinis
Trinomial name
Felis chaus affinis
Gray, 1830
Synonyms[1]
  • F. c. prateri Pocock, 1939
  • F. c. kutas Pearson, 1832

Taxonomy

Thomas Hardwicke's collection of illustrations of Indian wildlife comprises the first drawing of Felis chaus affinis, which John Edward Gray named the "Allied cat" Felis affinis in 1830.[3]

In the 19th century, several jungle cat specimens from South Asia were proposed as subspecies:

  • In 1832, a stuffed cat was presented at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal that had been caught in the jungles of Midnapore in West Bengal. Pearson who donated the specimen described it as different in colour from Felis chaus and proposed the name Felis kutas.[4]
  • In 1852, the Ceylonese naturalist Edward Frederick Kelaart described the first Felis chaus skin from northern Sri Lanka and emphasised its close resemblance to a "swamp lynx".[5]

In the 1930s, Pocock reviewed the Natural History Museum's jungle cat skins and skulls from British India and adjacent countries. Based mainly on differences in fur length and colour he grouped six larger skins from Sind under the name Felis chaus prateri. He subordinated the specimens from Sri Lanka and southern India under Felis chaus kelaarti, but those from northern India and the Himalayas to Felis chaus affinis.[6]

Since 2017, all three names are considered synonymous with F. c. affinis.[1]

References
  1. Kitchener, A. C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Eizirik, E., Gentry, A., Werdelin, L., Wilting A., Yamaguchi, N., Abramov, A. V., Christiansen, P., Driscoll, C., Duckworth, J. W., Johnson, W., Luo, S.-J., Meijaard, E., O’Donoghue, P., Sanderson, J., Seymour, K., Bruford, M., Groves, C., Hoffmann, M., Nowell, K., Timmons, Z. & Tobe, S. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group" (PDF). Cat News (Special Issue 11).CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  2. Gray, J.E. (1830). Illustrations of Indian Zoology chiefly selected from the collection of Major-General Hardwicke (Vol. 1). London, UK: Treuttel, Wurtz, Treuttel, jun. and Richter.
  3. Gray, J. E. (1830-1832). Illustrations of Indian Zoology; chiefly selected from the collection of Major-General Hardwicke. Vol. 1. Treuttel, Wurtz, Treuttel, jun. and Richter, London, Paris, Strasbourg.
  4. Pearson, J. T. (1832) A stuffed specimen of a species of Felis, native of the Midnapure jungles. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. I: 75.
  5. Kelaart, E. F. (1852). Prodromus Faunæ Zeylanicæ: Being Contributions to the Zoology of Ceylon. Printed for the author, Colombo.
  6. Pocock, R. I. (1939). "Felis chaus Güldenstädt". The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. – Volume 1. London: Taylor and Francis Ltd. pp. 290–305.
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