Geoffroy's cat (
Felis geoffroyi) is another smallish
New World spotted cat like the
margay and
oncilla, this one only found in the middle of
South America. It lives in
forests and is partly
arboreal -- it even
defecates in
trees, sometimes over
water, causing the first biologists to try and study it some confusion at the lack of traces left behind it. It is
nocturnal and eats the usual
rodents,
birds,
reptiles and
insects, whether caught in trees or on the ground. They live in all
temperatures and
altitudes, and in
captivity a mother has been seen pulling her
kittens onto her feet and wrapping her
tail around them for
warmth in cool weather.
The color of their coats can vary -- all-black ones are more common in the heavier forests -- but they are hunted more as the supply of larger spotted felines becomes smaller. To make a long fur coat takes 3 jaguar skins, 12 ocelot skins, or 20 Geoffroy's cat skins, so hunters can take a heavy toll on small species like this. They are also killed as poultry pests and eaten by humans. Sometimes, though, they are kept as pets and even cross-bred with the domestic cat to make a breed oddly called the "safari cat," which dilutes the gene pool of a rare species.