Felis manul Pallas 1776

Felis manul Pallas 1776, Reise Prov. Russ. Reichs, Vol. 3: 692.

Type Locality: "Frequens in rupestribus, apricis totius Tatariae Mongoliaeque desertae" [USSR, Chita Province, Borzya District, Kulusutai (Heptner and Sludskii, 1992)].

Vernacular Names: Pallas' Cat.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Felis manul subsp. manul Pallas 1776

Subspecies Felis manul subsp. ferruginea Ognev 1928

Subspecies Felis manul subsp. nigripecta Hodgson 1842

Distribution: Afghanistan, Armenia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II; IUCN – Near Threatened.

Discussion: Revised by Pocock (1907 a), Birula (1913, 1916), Ognev (1935), and Schwangart (1936). Most consider F. manul to be included with Felis (Felis) and separation into Otocolobus following Wozencraft (1993) would make Felis paraphyletic (Bininda-Emonds et al., 1999; Collier and O'Brien, 1985; Hemmer, 1978; Mattern and McLennan, 2000; Salles, 1992; Weigel, 1961). McKenna and Bell (1997) placed in Felis (Otocolobus) . Subspecies allocated according to Pocock (1951) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951).