French Dude's Got a Cat, Too

Saturday-Sunday, July 5-6, 2025

French Dude’s Got a Cat, Too

Today’s special animal friend is Geoffroy’s cat, Leopardus geoffroyi, a small wild cat native to South America. Upon searching my TSAF archives, I was surprised to find that I haven’t written about this animal. I did find an article on Geoffroy’s spider monkey, Ateles geoffroyi; Geoffroy also has a tamarin, a marmoset, a catfish, a turtle, and a bat.

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) was a French naturalist and university professor in the Revolutionary/Napoleonic era. He was one of the savants who accompanied Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition in 1798. He had evolutionary and physiological theories that have proved to be erroneous, but he was popular, as we can see from all the animals his friends named for him. Also, Balzac dedicated a novel to him.

Okay, back to the cat. It’s about the size of a house cat, with markings on the head and tail that resemble a tabby cat. The fur color varies across the cat’s range from bright gold to gray, with small black markings. A melanistic (black) color morph can be found in some deeply forested and jungle habitats. There used to be five recognized subspecies, but in 2017, they were all lumped back into the species.

Geoffroy’s cat can be found in a wide variety of habitats, from pampas to woodlands to the dry scrub of the Chaco region, home of the pink fairy armadillo, as well as agricultural areas and logged forest. They have been observed at altitudes up to 12,500 feet in the Andes. They are solitary and nocturnal. Although they can climb well, they are usually found on the ground. They are able to swim, and in some habitats, they catch fish and amphibians as part of their diet. In other areas, they eat mainly rodents, while in southern Chile, the introduced European hare makes up at least half their diet. Other prey include birds, snakes, and insects.

Mating season, the only time males and females spend time together, occurs in spring and summer. After a gestation of 72-78 days, one or two kittens — occasionally three — are born. The kittens mature slowly, compared to domestic cats. They are independent of their mothers at about 8 months old and reach reproductive age at 18 to 24 months. Their lifespan is up to 18 years.

Geoffroy’s cat is rated Least Concern by IUCN. Once, its coat was the second most common cat pelt sold on the international fur market. Today it is protected by national governments throughout its range. Threats include hybridization with other small wild cats and with domestic cats, predation from domestic and feral dogs, habit loss, hunting for meat, killing as an agricultural pest, and auto impacts.