Grade:6

Fessenden School

By : Paige Milner

THE MARGAY(LEOPARDUS WIEDII)

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATIONS• Common name: Margay

• Kingdom: Animalia

• Phylum: Chordata (Vertebrate)

• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Carnivora

• Family: Felidae

• Genus: Leopardus

• Species: Leopardus wiedii

APPEARANCE• The Margay has tawny or a brownish yellow background colouring, patterned with black-ringed rosettes which are circles with colored insides or pale inside,and stretched blotches

• Weighs about 9-20 pounds • Very similar to the ocelot but is smaller• Long slender body, strong paws, and claws • White fur runs along the belly to the throat• It has a long tail and a black stripe along both cheeks below

its eyes • 45 cm long tail • Its colour helps it camouflage at night • Large round eyes (Nocturnal)• Fur is very thick• Its long tail helps stabilize the margay as it moves on the

ground or in the trees

ocelot

HABITAT • The Margay lives in Mexico, Peru, parts of

Paraguay, the northern parts of Argentina, the Amazon basin, Uruguay, Belize and Brazil

• They live in remote and dense areas of the rainforest• They are extinct in Texas • Lives mostly lives in the trees andhardly ever goes on the ground • They are solitary creatures witch means they live on

their own • They sleep on tree branches, hallow caves ,dense

vegetation or tree crooks

LIFE CYCLE • The Margays are usually born in a litter 1-2 and weight about

2.75-6 ounces at birth • They open there eyes at 2 weeks • The Margay kittens are taught to hunt at the age of 8 weeks • They are mature enough to have kittens at the age of 2 years

old and the gestation period takes between 75-85 days• The females can have kittens between March and June• The males leave before the kittens are born and does not help

with their raising • Females attract males with a long moaning sounds, the males

respond by yelping or making trilling sounds and also rapidly shaking there heads side to side.

• They live for about 15 years in the wild and live for about 20 years in captivity

• They eat a whole bunch of things like …

• Birds, monkeys, tree frogs, insects, opossums, porcupines, marmosets, capuchins, three toed sloths

• They also supplement there diet with fruit

• The Margay prefers staking or ambushing its prey

• Margays also use mimicry to hunt animals

Diet

PREDATORS • Harpy Eagles,

and other birds of prey, Cougars, Jaguars and other jungle cats eat the margay

• Humans are also one of the biggest predators of the Margay

HOW DOES THE MARGAY HELP THE ENVIRONMENT • Margays help the

environment by controlling the population of birds, insects, and all the other animals that they eat

• Margays also help the environment by being food for bigger animals

HOW DO HUMANS IMPACT THE MARGAY • Humans impact the margay by

killing them for there coats and sometimes for pet trade

• Humans also impact them by cutting down the rainforest

• There are only about 10 000 margays left in the wild

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP THE MARGAY SURVIVE

• We can help them by stopping people from cutting down trees in there habitats

• Stop hunting them for there fur and pet trade

• There is also an international protection over the Margay but local men and woman still hunt them illegally

FACTS

• Margays can turn their ankles 180 degrees• They can jump 12 feet or 4 meters horizontally • They can walk head first down trees • They can hang upside down from a branch with one foot • They don’t usually bother humans except for stealing livestock

and chickens • “There was a sub-fossil specimen of the Margay dated back to 2

400 BC found in a tidal marsh near the mouth of the Sabine river”

MORE FACTS

• Scientists don’t yet know how the margays communicate with each other

• Their kitten mortality rate is 50%• Margays mimic monkeys• They are extremely quick • The margay is also known as a long tailed spotted cat and the

tree ocelot

REFERENCES

• http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/margay-facts• http://www.ecology.info/ecology-ocelot-margay.htm• http://www.tigerhomes.org/wild-cats/wc-margay.cfm• http://www.saczoo.org/document.doc?id=37• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margay• http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/agarman/bco/margay.htm• http://www.amersol.edu.pe/ms/7th/7block/jungle_research/new_car

ds/23c/Report23c.html

I couldn't have done it with out these websitesThank you

BOOK REFERENCES -Smithsonian Institution, animal, The definitive visual guide ,Written by-David Bernie and Don E Wilson

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