Pumapard

Last updated

Pumapard
Pumapard-1904.jpg
A pumapard, 1904
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Superfamily: Feloidea
Family: Felidae
Hybrid: Puma concolor × Panthera pardus
A pumapard, the Rothschild Museum, Tring, England (front view) Pumapard-face.jpg
A pumapard, the Rothschild Museum, Tring, England (front view)
A pumapard, the Rothschild Museum, Tring, England (side view) Pumapard5.jpg
A pumapard, the Rothschild Museum, Tring, England (side view)

A pumapard is a hybrid of a cougar and a leopard. Both male cougar with female leopard and male leopard with female cougar pairings have produced offspring. In general, these hybrids have exhibited a tendency to dwarfism.

Contents


Characteristics

Whether born to a male cougar mated to a leopardess, or to a male leopard mated to a female cougar, pumapards inherit a form of dwarfism. Those reported grew to only half the size of the parents. They have a long, cougar-like body (proportional to the limbs, but nevertheless shorter than either parent) with short legs. The coat is variously described as sandy, tawny, or grayish with brown, chestnut, or "faded" rosettes.[ citation needed ]

One is preserved in the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum at Tring, England, and clearly shows the tendency to dwarfism. This hybrid was exhibited at the Tierpark in Stellingen (Hamburg), Germany. A black and white photograph of the Tring hybrid appeared in Animals of the World (1917) with the caption "This is a photograph from life of a very rare hybrid. That animal's father was a puma, its mother a leopard. It is now dead and it may be seen stuffed in Mr. Rothschild's Museum at Tring."[ citation needed ]

History

In the late 1890s/early 1900s, two hybrids were born in Chicago, United States, followed two years later by three sets of twin cubs born at a zoo in Hamburg, Germany, from a cougar father and leopard mother. Carl Hagenbeck bred several litters of cougar × leopard hybrids in 1898 at the suggestion of a menagerie owner in Great Britain; this was possibly Lord Rothschild (as one of the hybrids is preserved in his museum) who may have heard of the two hybrid cubs bred in Chicago in 1896 and suggested that Hagenbeck reproduce the pairing.

Hagenbeck's cougar/leopard hybrids may have been inspired by a pair of leopard × cougar hybrid cubs born in Chicago on 24  April 1896 at Tattersall's indoor arena, where Ringling Brothers Circus opened its season:

"Two tiny cubs which look like young leopards were born at Tattersall's where Ringling Brothers circus is housed, yesterday (24  APR [18]96). They are not leopards, however. Their mother is a mountain lion or cougar and their father is a leopard. They take after their father decidedly and are the daintiest little members of the cat family ever born in captivity. They are the only ones of their kind, so far as known, ever born, either within the confines of a cage or anywhere else. These black and yellow youngsters were on exhibition yesterday and were admired by all who saw them. They will probably be on view the rest of the time the circus exhibits in Chicago." [1]

Helmut Hemmer reported a similar hybrid. These hybrids had cougar-like long tails and sandy or tawny coats with chestnut leopard-like markings and cougar-like cheek markings. Another was described as resembling a little gray puma with large brown rosettes. Dying is inevitable.

Henry Scherren wrote:

There was, and probably is now, in the Berlin Garden and Indian leopard and puma male hybrid, purchased by Carl Hagenbeck in 1898. [2]

In his Guide, Dr. Heck described it as a little grey puma with large brown rosettes. Another hybrid between the same species, but with a puma for sire and a leopard for dam, was recently at Stellingen; it resembled the female parent in form as may be seen from the reproduction from a photograph taken there.[ citation needed ]

According to Carl Hagenbeck (1951), a male cougar and female leopard produced a hybrid male cub that was reared by a Fox Terrier bitch at Hagenbeck Tierpark, Hamburg (fostering being normal practice at this time). This male hybrid was intermediate between the cougar and leopard in color and pattern, having faint leopard spots on a cougar-colored background. The body length was much less than either parent, while the tail was long, like the cougar. Hagenbeck bred these hybrids at the suggestion of an unidentified menagerie owner; however, the hybrids were considered dull and uninteresting. Modern geneticists find them more interesting because the leopard and the cougar were not considered to be closely related enough to produce offspring.[ citation needed ]

H. Petzsch (1956) mentioned that puma/leopard hybrids had been obtained by artificial insemination. H. Hemmer (1966) reported the hybrid between a male Indian leopard (P. p. fusca) and a female puma as being fairly small, with a ground color like that of the puma and having rather faded rosettes.[ citation needed ]

The hybrids were additionally reported by C. J. Cornish et al. (undated), R. Rörig (1903), T. Haltenorth (1936), and O. Antonius (1951). [ full citation needed ]

See also

Note

Some content of this article is reproduced from "Hybrid Big Cats". messybeast.com., which is licensed under the GFDL.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cougar</span> Large species of cat native to the Americas

The cougar, also known as the panther, mountain lion, catamount and puma, is a large cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most widespread in the world. Its range spans the Canadian Territory of Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta provinces, the Rocky Mountains and areas in the Western United States. Further south, its range extends through Mexico to the Amazon Rainforest and the southern Andes Mountains in Patagonia. It is an adaptable, generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types. It prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking but also lives in open areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liger</span> Lion and tigress hybrid

The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion and a tigress, or female tiger. The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the opposite hybrid called the tigon, and is the largest of all known extant felines. They enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schönbrunn Zoo</span> Zoo in Vienna

Schönbrunn Zoo is a 17-hectare (42-acre) zoo in the city of Vienna, Austria. Established in 1752, it is the world's oldest zoo still in operation. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, being a part of the Schönbrunn Palace gardens. It generally receives more than 2 million visitors every year.

The marozi is a name given to a type of spotted feline similar to a lion but with leopard-like spots, which was sighted in Kenya in the early 20th century. Skins of hunted specimens fitting the description do exist, but have not been sufficient for biologists to come to any definite conclusion regarding the nature of the animal. Naturalists have suggested that Mazori is a colour morph of a known subspecies of lion, perhaps involving individuals that retained juvenile spots into adulthood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congolese spotted lion</span> Hybrid carnivore

A Congolese spotted lion, also known by the portmanteau lijagulep, is the hybrid of a male lion and female jaguar-leopard hybrid. Several lijaguleps have been bred, but only one appears to have been exhibited as a Congolese spotted lion. It was most likely given that name by a showman because the public were more interested in exotic captured animals than in captive-bred hybrids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Showmen's Rest</span> Circus peoples graveyard

Showmen's Rest in Forest Park, Illinois, is a 750 plot section of Woodlawn Cemetery mostly for circus performers owned by the Showmen's League of America. The first performers and show workers that were buried there are in a mass grave from when between 56 and 61 employees of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were interred. They were killed in the Hammond circus train wreck on June 22, 1918, at Hessville, Indiana,, when an empty Michigan Central Railroad troop train from Detroit, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois, plowed into their circus train. The engineer of the troop train, Alonzo Sargent, had fallen asleep. Among the dead were Arthur Dierckx and Max Nietzborn of the "Great Dierckx Brothers" strong man act and Jennie Ward Todd of "The Flying Wards".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savannah cat</span> Breed of cat

The Savannah is a breed of hybrid cat developed in the late 20th century from crossing a serval with a domestic cat. This hybridization typically produces large and lean offspring, with the serval's characteristic large ears and markedly brown-spotted coats. F1 and F2 male Savannahs can be very large, and in 2016 an F2 male attained a world record for tallest cat at 48.4 centimetres (19.1 in). Show-eligible F4–F5 cats range from 5.0 to 8.2 kilograms however, comparable in size to other large domestic cat breeds such as the Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest cat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lion taming</span> Training big cats for performance

Lion taming is the taming and training of lions, either for protection or for use in entertainment, such as the circus. The term often applies to the taming and display of lions and other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, black panthers, cheetahs, and cougars. People often use lion taming as a metaphor for any dangerous activity. Lion taming occurs in zoos around the world to enable the keepers to carry out medical procedures and feedings.

A Panthera hybrid is a crossbreed between individuals of any of the five species of the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. Most hybrids would not be perpetuated in the wild as the territories of the parental species do not overlap and the males are usually infertile. Mitochondrial genome research revealed that wild hybrids were also present in ancient times. The mitochondrial genomes of the snow leopard and the lion were more similar to each other than to other Panthera species, indicating that at some point in their history, the female progeny of male ancestors of modern snow leopards and female ancestors of modern lions interbred with male ancestors of modern snow leopards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felid hybrids</span> Hybrid carnivore

A felid hybrid is any of a number of hybrids between various species of the cat family, Felidae. This article deals with hybrids between the species of the subfamily Felinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursid hybrid</span> Bear hybrids

An ursid hybrid is an animal with parents from two different species or subspecies of the bear family (Ursidae). Species and subspecies of bear known to have produced offspring with another bear species or subspecies include American black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears, all of which are members of the genus Ursus. Bears not included in Ursus, such as the giant panda, are expected to be unable to produce hybrids with other bears. The giant panda bear belongs to the genus Ailuropoda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American cougar</span> Subspecies of carnivore

The North American cougar is a cougar subspecies in North America. It is the biggest cat in North America. It was once common in eastern North America and is still prevalent in the western half of the continent. This subspecies includes populations in western Canada, the western United States, Florida, Mexico and Central America, and possibly South America northwest of the Andes Mountains. It thus includes the extirpated eastern cougar and extant Florida panther populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highland Wildlife Park</span> Zoo in Kingussie, Scotland

The Highland Wildlife Park is a 105-hectare (260-acre) safari park and zoo near Kingussie, Highland, Scotland. The park is located within the Cairngorms National Park. The park is run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Hagenbeck</span> German trainer of animals and circus manager

Carl Hagenbeck was a German merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos, as well as P. T. Barnum. He created the modern zoo with animal enclosures without bars that were closer to their natural habitat. He was also an ethnography showman and a pioneer in displaying humans next to animals in human zoos. His use of human zoos is widely considered to be inhumane today, and was controversial even at the time. The transformation of the zoo architecture initiated by him is known as the Hagenbeck revolution. Hagenbeck founded Germany's most successful privately owned zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, which moved to its present location in Hamburg's Stellingen district in 1907.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tierpark Hagenbeck</span> Zoo

The Tierpark Hagenbeck is a zoo in Stellingen, Hamburg, Germany. The collection began in 1863 with animals that belonged to Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810–1887), a fishmonger who became an amateur animal collector. The park itself was founded by Carl Hagenbeck Jr. in 1907. It is known for being the first zoo to use open enclosures surrounded by moats, rather than barred cages, to better approximate animals' natural environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al G. Barnes Circus</span> Early 20th century traveling show

Al G. Barnes Circus was an American circus run by Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse that operated from 1898 to 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tigon</span> Tiger and lioness hybrid

The tigon is a hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a female lion, or lioness. They exhibit visible characteristics from both parents: they can have both spots from the mother and stripes from the father. Any mane that a male tigon may have will appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is closer in type to the ruff of a male tiger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liliger</span> Hybrid carnivore

The liliger is the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female liger. Thus, it is a second generation hybrid. In accordance with Haldane's rule, male tigons and ligers are sterile, but female ligers and tigons can produce cubs. The first such hybrid was born in 1943, at the Hellabrunn Zoo.

A pet exotic felid, also called pet wild cat or pet non-domestic cat, is a member of the family Felidae kept as an exotic pet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Schmitt</span> German-American circus artist and elephant trainer

Hugo Schmitt, born July 19, 1904, in Bann, Landkreis Kaiserslautern, in Southwestern Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany, dead August 9, 1977, in Sarasota, Florida, United States, was a German-American circus artist, animal trainer and one of the worlds most famous elephant trainers with a record of 55 elephants performing in the ring. Starting his career at Carl Hagenbeck Circus-Stellingen in Germany, Schmitt was elephant superintendent at the world's largest circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the USA from 1947 to 1971.

References

  1. "[no title cited]". The Chicago Chronicle. 25 April 1896.[ full citation needed ]
  2. Scherren, Henry (25 April 1908). "[no title cited]". The Field. No. 2887.[ full citation needed ]