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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