A new species of cat that is disappearing from its natural home in eastern Europe and central Asia has successfully bred for the first time at Coswold Wildlife Park.
The zoo recently added Pallas cats Hopalong and Tsara to its collection, and the moggy’s have become parents to their first litter. The as yet unnamed male and female kittens can be seen in their exhibit at the park near Burford, but are increasingly rare in their former range in and around the Caspian Sea.
Wildlife Park curator, Jamie Craig, said: “We are delighted that our pair of Pallas cats have reproduced so soon after arriving at the Park. This interesting and active species are sadly declining in numbers in their wild habitat and it is great to be contributing to their captive breeding programme. They are a particularly hardy species, ensuring our visitors always get a great view of the kittens and proud parents as they explore their exhibit, even in the worst of the English weather.”
The Pallas cat is named after naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who first described the species in 1776. The cats can still be found in the central Asian steppe grasslands of Mongolia, China and the Tibetan Plateau, and are thought to have diverged from a leopard cat ancestor around 5.2-million years ago.
