It’s obviously a “cat”, why is it called a “rabbit” or a “manta”?

Audit expert: Chen Yu

Paleontological restoration artist

Three parts indifference, three parts ridicule, and four parts carelessness.

This kind of eye description, which is common in novels about domineering CEOs, if it appears in real life, it would probably look like a caracal, right?

Manul: Look at my wise eyes

Source | wall.alphacoders.com

Since when, the caracal, which was originally unknown in the cat family, has successfully joined the ranks of Internet celebrities with its unique square face, round eyes, short legs, and honest and rich expressions, and has become a veritable "feline facial expression representative."

On October 10, 2022, Xining Wildlife Park, the only zoo in China that raises and exhibits manuls, issued a notice that the only captive male manul in the country, "Pan Simiao", unfortunately suffocated to death due to a chicken stuck in his throat while eating.

Source | Weibo @Xining Wildlife Park

The relevant news quickly attracted the attention of many netizens and once topped the Weibo hot search list. On the third day after "Si Miao" returned to the cat planet, the editor would like to talk with everyone about several confusing issues about the manul.

It’s obviously a cat, why does it have “rabbit” in its name?

The manul (scientific name: Otocolobus manul) is the only species of the genus Otocolobus in the family Felidae, order Carnivora. It can be divided into the West Asian subspecies, the nominate subspecies, and the plateau subspecies . The internet celebrity "Mao Simiao" is a plateau subspecies of the manul raised by Xining Wildlife Park.

When talking about the "mystery" of the cat, we must first talk about its name "manul". The Latin name of the cat, "Otocolobus manul", comes from the Mongolian word "little mountain cat", while the genus name "Otocolobus" comes from the Greek word, which originally means "cat with ugly ears".

"You have ugly ears!"

Source | wall.alphacoders.com

The "rabbit" in the Chinese name "Tu Mau" is probably familiar to everyone, while the other character "Mau" is usually used to refer to a type of macaque in Chinese. It is obviously a fat cat, so why is it named after a rabbit and a monkey?

There are different opinions about the origin of the name "Tumanul". One theory is that when ancient nomadic people saw Tumanul on the grassland, they would shout "Tuxun", which means "stop". Over time, "Tumanul" became the name of this animal.

Another more common theory is that the word "狲" has a deep origin in Mongolian. In many ancient books, "猞猁" is written as "猞猁狲", which is a transliteration of Mongolian. As for the word "兔", some people think that since it is a small cat, "兔狲" means "rabbit-sized lynx"; others think that "兔" comes from the main food of 兔狲, pika, and the two words together mean "rabbit-catching lynx".

Pika

Source | wall.alphacoders.com

However, it should be noted that the manul and lynx belong to the same family but different genera. Classifying them as "lynx" when naming them may just be a misjudgment made by ancient people based on their appearance.

A fat guy with a rich expression? He's just furry!

Because of its thick fur, flat face, and short and stocky body, the Manul was once mistakenly believed to be the ancestor of the Persian cat.

However, the "fatness" we see is actually an illusion. The caracal is 50 to 60 centimeters long and weighs only 2 to 5 kilograms. A few caracals kept in zoos can weigh more than 6 kilograms, which is even heavier than domestic cats with better food.

"I'm just furry!" Source | Xining Wildlife Park

The reason why it looks so fat is that its habitat is generally distributed in cold and barren areas such as deserts, wastelands, grasslands or Gobi. In order to resist the cold, the manul has the most dense long hair among cats, with up to 9,000 hairs per square centimeter of skin. In order to maintain body temperature when crawling or moving in the snow, the manul has particularly long hair on its belly and tail, and even its limbs are covered with long hair, looking like a moving ball of hair.

"What are you looking at?" Source | wall.alphacoders.com Another reason why the manul has a unique expression is its unique pupils. Unlike the vertical striped pupils of other cats, the manul's pupils are always round no matter how large or small. Combined with its fur ball-like body and iconic big face, the manul has become the "cat with the richest expressions."

The endangered highland "Grumpy Cat"...

The manul mainly feeds on small herbivorous animals such as rodents, hares, and pikas, which helps to suppress the number of small herbivores and, to a certain extent, protect the balance of the ecosystem. Therefore, many countries have listed the manul as a protected species that is prohibited from being hunted.

Origin of the manul cubs丨Wikipedia/Parken Zoo

However, due to factors such as soil erosion and land desertification, the habitat of the manul has been severely damaged. Coupled with the long-term indiscriminate hunting and killing, the number of manuls in the wild has dropped sharply. At present, the manul has been included in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" and is also a national second-level protected animal in my country.

In addition, the manul itself is a timid and shy animal. During the long process of evolution, the desert plateau environment has made their immunity almost the worst among all cats. Therefore, the survival rate of manuls in zoos is very low, and they are very strict about food.

Xining Wildlife Park has been raising manuls for decades, mainly following the advice of European experts, feeding manuls with whole animal carcasses and boned meat. According to staff, the food eaten by "Manul Simiao" was not big enough to choke it, but because there was a long piece of meat between the two pieces of cartilage torn off by "Si Miao", when swallowing, "it was like us eating vegetable leaves, half swallowed and half not swallowed", which eventually led to the accident.

Diagram of the Heimlich maneuver for pets Source | thecottagemarket.com

In fact, just like people, if a small animal is choked by a foreign object, the Heimlich maneuver can also be used for first aid. First, lift the animal's hind legs and turn it head downward to let it spit out the foreign object, or pry open the animal's mouth and directly remove the blockage. If necessary, you can also clench your hands, compress the abdomen forward suddenly, and then pat its shoulder blades hard to help it completely expel the foreign object.

Unfortunately, however, the breeding environment in a wildlife park is different from that of domestic pets, and the staff were unable to provide timely first aid to "Mao Simiao". By the time it was found lying on the ground, its breathing and heartbeat had stopped.

As the obituary issued by Xining Wildlife Park said, "In his life, Simiao the Manul never enjoyed the vast wild plateau... But he spent his life letting countless people know, understand, pay attention to, and care about the manul species, and he established an immortal monument on the road of artificial breeding research of manuls in my country."

Now, we can only wish "Si Miao" all the best in the distant cat planet, and hope that no other small animals will leave this world early due to accidents like "Mao Simiao".