[Aztlan] "Tiger Cat"

Meryl Green zoo_newt at hotmail.com
Sat Jul 26 20:26:55 CDT 2008


Hi all,
 
I'm researching cats in South/Central America and I came across a reference to a "tiger cat" (aka "jaguarita"?).  Most articles I've read thus far at least give an old scientific name (or at least a common name I've heard of), but this one does not.  
 
The statement in question (referring to a headdress of cat claws, similar to a larger one of jaguar claws referred to in the same paragraph) is:
 
"Mr. Frič also brought home a type hitherto unknown, of much smaller circumference and having the claws of the tiger cat, jaguarita, instead." (p393)
 
(Frič, Vojtěch and Paul Radin. 1906. Contribution to the study of the Bororo Indians (With a description of an ethnographic collection presented to the Berlin Museum fur Volkerunde).  The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 36:382-406.)
 
A little searching turned up that oncillas (Leopardus tigrinus) are also known as tiger cats, but I'm not positive this is what the authors were referring to since this is the first time I've come across the term in this type of literature.  The range of the oncilla does match the location of the Bororo.  Can anyone say yea or nay?
 
Thanks,
Meryl Green
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