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Leopardus jacobita
Sign in to saveAlso known as Andean mountain cat, Oreailurus jacobita, Andean cat
species of mammal
OverviewAI-generated
Leopardus jacobita is a species of mammal belonging to the family Felidae within the order Carnivora. Its scientific name is listed as Leopardus jacobitus, with the parent taxon identified as Leopardus. Common names for this animal include Andean cat, Chinchay, Gato Andino, and Gato Lince. The organism is classified under the kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, and class Mammalia.
This species exists during the Holocene time period. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES and holds an Endangered status on the IUCN Red List, a designation recorded in 2025. There are 74 recorded occurrences of the taxon.
Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, IUCN Red List, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
EndangeredLeopardus jacobitus
SPECIES
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderCarnivora
- FamilyFelidae
Little is known about Andean cats. There have been only five reported observations of these animals in the wild. Only one animal has been held in captivity for one year, where it died. These cats are considered to be closely related to pampas cats (Leopardus colocolo), which occur sympatrically with Andean cats in the high Andes. Although there is a much higher abundance of pampas cats throughout the Andes region, a surprisingly low amount of information has been collected about the ecology of this species also. In northern Chile and Bolivia it is thought bad luck to see an Andean cat and afterwards the person must kill it. It is also Andean tradition to keep stuffed and dried skins of O. jacobita. The skins are decorated and used for festivals, religious rituals, and folk magic.
via GBIF · IUCN
Wikidata facts
Show 8 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- IUCN conservation status
- Endangered status
- Commons category
- Leopardus jacobita
- taxon name
- Leopardus jacobita
- Commons gallery
- Leopardus jacobita
- taxon common name
- andska mačka
- CITES Appendix
- Appendix I of CITES
- time period
- Holocene
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Andean mountain cat (Leopardus jacobita) is a small wild cat native to the high Andes that has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List because fewer than 1,500 individuals are thought to exist in the wild. It is traditionally considered a sacred animal by indigenous Aymara and Quechua people.
The Andean mountain cat was first described by Emilio Cornalia, who named it in honor of Jacobita Mantegazza. It is a monotypic species.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Leopardus jacobita” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.