Central American Margay

Alfred Brehm Haus: Central American Margay. September 5, 2018. L. w. nicaraguae or glauculus depending on your taxonomy. The horrible glare on the glass made better photos impossible unfortunately.

San Diego Zoo when I was a kid used to keep animals they labelled as ssp. glauculus, they were kept in on of the cages on Elephant Mesa. I have a guide book from the late 1990s early 2000s that shows a photo of them.

@UngulateNerd92 Would you happen to have any information on the US Margay population as a whole?

~Thylo

@ThylacineAlive unfortunately not off the top of my head from a broad perspective if you will, but I do have bits and pieces of information I will share here.

@Arizona Docent any further thoughts on this one? I do know that Santa Ana Zoo's animal was originally born at Cincinnati Zoo.

Here is some information that I was able to compile from "The Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; From the Living Collections of the World" by Richard Weigl:

1.0 non-subspecific animal lived at Santa Fe Community College Teaching Zoo in Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida from December 20th 1970 until its death on September 11th 1993. This animal was captive born.

1.0 non-subspecific animal lived at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum from March 21st 1973 until March 9th 1979, and was then transferred to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo where it lived until its death on April 27th 1994. This animal was wild born in Mexico in 1970.

0.1 Brazilian margay (Leopardus wiedii wiedii) was born at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo on November 3rd 1979 and died on August 18th 2001.

0.1 Amazonian margay (Leopardus wiedii amazonica) lived at the Topeka Zoo in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas from May 20th 1974 until May 6th 1982, when it was transferred to the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana and then sent out on March 8th 1985. This animal was captive born in 1973.

1.0 Bolivian margay (Leopardus wiedii boliviae) lived at the Glen Oak Zoo in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois from August 6th 1974 until it was sent out on September 22nd 1988. It was wild born in 1973.

0.1 West Mexican margay (Leopardus wiedii glauculus) was born at the Sacramento Zoo on October 23rd 1978 and then transferred to San Diego Zoo on March 27th 1981, where it lived until its death on December 1st 2000.

1.0 West mexican margay (Leopardus wiedii glauculus) lived at the San Diego Zoo from May 2nd 1980 until its death on December 1st 2000. This animal was wild born in Mexico in 1980.

0.1 Nicaraguan margay (Leopardus wiedii nicaraguae) lived at the Philadelphia Zoo from April 18th 1963 until its death on August 18th 1974. This animal bwas wild born in Nicaragua.

In this book there is also information on Oaxacan margay (Leopardus wiedii oaxacensis), Colombian margay (Leopardus wiedii pirrensis), and Yucatan margay (Leopardus wiedii yucatanica) outside of US zoos, would you be interested in me sharing that here as well?

@UngulateNerd92 Very interesting, thank you. I was under the impression that the entire US population was Yucatan just like Europe's. I'm pretty sure Cincinnati's were Yucatan but now I'm not sure at all. Any further information on those animals (and thus Santa Ana's) would be greatly appreciated.

Quick edit: it seems Cincy still has 0.1 Margay named Carlotta that was confiscated from a man in Indiana. She is 26 years old. I don't know if she's the mother of SA's animal or not, though.

~Thylo

@ThylacineAlive sure I will see what information I can find and circle back to you.

UngulateNerd92 wants my input (me being a cat fanatic), but as he may or may not remember from our recent meetings I am a subspecies lumper while he is a subspecies splitter. So in my opinion most of the splits listed here may not be valid anyway. However I know virtually nothing about margay subspecies regardless of which ones are valid or not. Of the ones I have seen in person, the only ones I remember seeing listed with a subspecies designation were the above mentioned pair at San Diego Zoo (L.w. glauculus). The ones at Desert Museum may or may not have been listed that way as well. It seems both of those had a pale gray undercoat whereas the margays I have seen in Europe had a warmer tone undercoat (like the pair in this photo).

@Arizona Docent ah very interesting! Thank you for your input! Yes I do remember that you were a lumper, in particular with Jaguars (Panthera onca). Yes I do consider myself an extreme splitter.