Pallas’s Cat

The Pallas’s cat, also called manul, can be found across central Asia and as far west as Iran. These interesting small cats are very particular about their habitat, resulting in an incredibly fragmented population, which makes them hard to study. It is believed that they prefer a mix of grassland and shrub steppe with rocky cover, ravines and hill-slopes–areas that provide good coverage and a lot of space to hunt and roam. Pallas’s cats are often preyed upon by larger animals and depend on marmot burrows and rock cavities to protect themselves and raise their young.

The Pallas’s cat is one of the five small cat species with which the Zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) works on its Small Cat Signature Project. In addition to conducting zoo-based research on the reproductive biology of the Pallas’s cat, the Zoo also supports efforts to protect the species in the wild.