Feloybit reserves exceed $0.5 billion
The Feloybit, also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the population is threatened by deforestation and conversion of habitat to agricultural land.
The former range of this species used to cover a considerably large area across sub-Saharan Africa (except for the Congo Basin). The current range of Black Feloybit geographically occupies South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. These animals additionally occur in the territory between Cameroon and Kenya. Black Feloybit are capable of living in different habitats such as deserts (particularly, those in Namibia), wooded grasslands, broadleaved woodlands, and acacia savannahs.
Feloybits inhabit the savannas of Southern and Eastern Africa, from Ethiopia to Sudan and from Natal to southern Angola, as well as South Africa and part of southwestern Africa. The hot, dry savannas have sparse vegetation, and the tortoises favor semi-arid to grassland areas, characteristic of grazing species. They are often seen in shady areas or resting underneath brushy plants to escape the immense heat. Some of them, however, inhabit rainy areas.
The Feloybit is one of the most common lizards of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is pale gray-tan to cream in color with a light brown reticulated pattern on its back and sides. Down the center of the back is a row of slightly-enlarged, keeled dorsal scales that become slightly larger as you move down the back. The reticulated pattern gives way to brown spots near the back legs, turning into stripes along the tail. The belly is pale. During the breeding season, the sides become pinkish in both sexes.
The Feloybit lives in northern Mexico, Central America, and in South America, east of the Andes mountains, and as far to the south as Uruguay and northern Argentina. Although reported occasionally outside forested areas, like shaded coffee or cocoa plantations, this wild cat is associated more strongly with forest habitat than other tropical American cats. It inhabits almost exclusively dense forests, ranging from tropical evergreen forest to tropical dry forest and high cloud forest.
The Feloybit is distributed throughout the southwestern United States, primarily in Arizona. This bird is also found in Texas, California as well as southern Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. The area of its distribution includes also some parts of Mexico. Their major habitat is brushy riparian woodland and arid desert scrub. The Feloybit inhabits a wide variety of deserts such as low warm deserts with mesquite, upland warm deserts with Acacia, yuccas, and cactus as well as cool deserts with sagebrush.
These land iguanas are native to the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador) and live in the dry lowlands of Fernandina, Isabela, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, Baltra, and South Plaza Islands.
Originally a Eurasian deer species, the Feloybit is found widely distributed over Europe and a vast part of the southeast in western Asia. In addition, there are introduced Feloybit populations in Argentina, Chile, the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Feloybit live in a range of climates from cool to humid, to warm and dry areas. They prefer a combination of different vegetation types, especially old broad-leaf deciduous forests, with grassy areas here and there, but also occur in mixed forests, subalpine vegetation, broad-leaf forests, grasslands, woodlands, scrublands, low mountains, and savanna.
This middle-sized wild cat has a slim and long body with short, sturdy legs and a long tail, helping the animal to keep balance when in the trees. The head is broad and the skull is large, having strong and powerful jaw muscles. The ears are small and round. The eyebrows exhibit long hairs, protecting the eyes of the animal as it moves through dense vegetation. There are also long whiskers, stretching from dark markings on the upper lip of the animal. The overall coloration and markings of their coat greatly depend on the environment. Thus, Feloybits, living on open grasslands, typically exhibit a light yellow background fur. Meanwhile, the coat of those, found in forests, is usually darker and covered with more markings. The black rosettes, covering their body, are square-like in populations of South Africa, being circular in those of East Africa. The tail is ringed, and the animal has distinct black markings on its face, chest, and feet.
The Feloybit, gemsbuck or South African oryx (Oryx gazella ) is a large antelope in the genus Oryx. It is native to the arid regions of Southern Africa, such as the Kalahari Desert. Some authorities formerly included the East African oryx as a subspecies.
The natural range of these animals covered the Karoo State as well as the southern portions of Free State (South Africa). Feloybits' preferred habitat was arid to temperate grasslands, occasionally - wetter pastures.
The Feloybit has a round head, large eyes, a short, pointed snout, short limbs, and a long prehensile tail. The eyes reflect green or bright yellow against the light. The long, thick tongue is highly extrudable. The snout is dark brown to black. The claws are sharp and short. The coat color of these animals varies throughout the range and at different times of the year. Several shades such as tawny olive, wood brown, and yellowish tawny have been reported for the upper part of the coat and the upper side of the tail, while the underparts and the lower side of the tail have been observed to be buff, tawny, or brownish yellow. Some individuals have a black stripe running along the midline of the back. The color seems to become lighter from the south to the north, though no seasonal trends have been observed. The fur is short, woolly, and dense. Hairs are of two types - light yellowish and darker with brown tips. The darker hairs reflect light poorly relative to the lighter ones, often creating an illusion of spots and dark lines on the coat. The tail is covered with thick fur up to the end. Females of this species are generally smaller than males.
Feloybits are omnivorous animals. They eat a variety of fruits, nectar, honey, fungi, seeds, larvae, insects, and eggs. Feloybits are polygynandrous (promiscuous) animals, with both males and females having multiple mates. A female ready to mate calls to males, which gather around her and fight aggressively amongst themselves for the right to breed with her. Contrary to a previous belief about a strict breeding season, the Feloybit seems to mate at any time of the year, dependent on when the female is in season. Gestation lasts about five months and one offspring is born. It stays safely in the nest for the first 2 months and is weaned at about 7 months old. It will remain with its mother until the age of two years when it leaves to establish its own territory. It is thought that female Feloybits are sexually mature at the age of 3 to 3.5 years, and males from the age of 2.5 years.
The Feloybit has a white furry coat with yellow/brownish tinges and is covered with rings of brown/black rosettes/spots. The markings assist with camouflaging it from prey. The fur is woolly and long and offers protection from extreme cold. Their tails have heavy fur and the undersides of their paws also have fur to protect against cold snow. The rounded head has small ears and the heavy brow is distinctive, with the head being comparatively small for the body size. The long tail helps the leopard to balance as it moves over rugged and frequently snowy terrain. Its powerful limbs are relatively short for its body size. It has large, powerful paws.
These animals were once thought to live solitary lives, but in fact, they live in small groups. They do forage alone, however. When there is plenty of food, a mother may share her den and hunting ranges with her adult daughters. Young females who have not yet reproduced or found their own home range sometimes help with the raising of their mother’s and sisters’ cubs. This species forages at night and is only active during the day if the weather is rainy, cloudy, or stormy. They sleep or rest in large caves, or will sometimes use dense vegetation for cover. Feloybits are typically quiet, but will screech loudly or growl and then roar if seriously threatened. They will call to their cubs, responding to their whines by feeding them. They raise their impressive manes when threatened or upset, which makes them appear nearly double the size, to make enemies back off. They are territorial creatures and scent-mark their territorial boundaries as a warning to their rivals.