The Margay is a small wild cat found in Central and South America. It has tawny fur patterned with black rosettes and lives primarily in trees in dense rainforests. Though solitary, the Margay preys on small mammals, birds, and monkeys. Its habitat and population are threatened by deforestation and hunting. Conservation efforts aim to protect the Margay and its environment.
3. • The Margay has tawny or a brownish yellow background
colouring, patterned with black-ringed rosettes which are
circles with colored insides or pale inside,and stretched
APPEARANCE
blotches
• Weighs about 9-20 pounds
• Very similar to the ocelot but is smaller
• Long slender body, strong paws, and claws
• White fur runs along the belly to the throat
• It has a long tail and a black stripe along both cheeks below
its eyes
• 45 cm long tail
• Its colour helps it camouflage at night
• Large round eyes (Nocturnal)
• Fur is very thick
• Its long tail helps stabilize the margay as it moves on the
ground or in the trees
ocelot
4. HABITAT
• The Margay lives in Mexico, Peru, parts of
Paraguay, the northern parts of Argentina, the
Amazon basin, Uruguay, Belize and Brazil
• They live in remote and dense areas of the rainforest
• They are extinct in Texas
• Lives mostly lives in the trees and
hardly ever goes on the ground
• They are solitary creatures witch means they live on
their own
• They sleep on tree branches, hallow caves ,dense
vegetation or tree crooks
5. LIFE CYCLE
• The Margays are usually born in a litter 1-2 and weight about
2.75-6 ounces at birth
• They open there eyes at 2 weeks
• The Margay kittens are taught to hunt at the age of 8 weeks
• They are mature enough to have kittens at the age of 2 years
old and the gestation period takes between 75-85 days
• The females can have kittens between March and June
• The males leave before the kittens are born and does not help
with their raising
• Females attract males with a long moaning sounds, the males
respond by yelping or making trilling sounds and also rapidly
shaking there heads side to side.
• They live for about 15 years in the wild and live for about 20
years in captivity
6. Diet
• They eat a whole bunch of things like …
• Birds, monkeys, tree frogs, insects,
opossums, porcupines, marmosets,
capuchins, three toed sloths
• They also supplement there diet with
fruit
• The Margay prefers staking or
ambushing its prey
• Margays also use mimicry to hunt
animals
7. • Harpy Eagles,
and other PREDATORS
birds of prey,
Cougars,
Jaguars and
other jungle
cats eat the
margay
• Humans are
also one of
the biggest
predators of
the Margay
8. HOW DOES THE
MARGAY HELP THE
• Margays help the ENVIRONMENT
environment by
controlling the
population of birds,
insects, and all the
other animals that they
eat
• Margays also help the
environment by being
food for bigger animals
9. HOW DO HUMANS IMPACT THE MARGAY
• Humans impact the margay by
killing them for there coats and
sometimes for pet trade
• Humans also impact them by
cutting down the rainforest
• There are only about 10 000
margays left in the wild
10. WHAT CAN WE DO TO
HELP THE MARGAY
SURVIVE
• We can help them by
stopping people from
cutting down trees in
there habitats
• Stop hunting them for
there fur and pet trade
• There is also an
international
protection over the
Margay but local men
and woman still hunt
them illegally
11. FACTS
• Margays can turn their ankles 180 degrees
• They can jump 12 feet or 4 meters horizontally
• They can walk head first down trees
• They can hang upside down from a branch with one foot
• They don’t usually bother humans except for stealing livestock
and chickens
• “There was a sub-fossil specimen of the Margay dated back to 2
400 BC found in a tidal marsh near the mouth of the Sabine
river”
12. MORE
FACTS
• Scientists don’t yet know how the margays communicate with
each other
• Their kitten mortality rate is 50%
• Margays mimic monkeys
• They are extremely quick
• The margay is also known as a long tailed spotted cat and the
tree ocelot
13. REFERENCES
• http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/margay-facts
• http://www.ecology.info/ecology-ocelot-margay.htm
• http://www.tigerhomes.org/wild-cats/wc-margay.cfm
• http://www.saczoo.org/document.doc?id=37
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margay
• http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/agarman/bco/margay.htm
• http://www.amersol.edu.pe/ms/7th/7block/jungle_research/new_car
ds/23c/Report23c.html
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