IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Izawa, M. | |
| An annual breeding events of the female Iriomote cats Felis iriomotensis | |
| 1999 Full Book | |
The Iriomote cat, _Felis irimotensis,_ is small felid endemic to Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan. Recently, some ecological aspects and an outline of social system on the species have been studied, however, the breeding habits of the female cat which were considered as fundamental and important constituents for elucidation of the mating system have little known both in captive and the field. The aims of this study are to make an estimation of breeding events of the female cat by the frequency of urine marking and breeding behavior of mother cat in the field study. Furthermore, we examined previous record related to breeding, and estimated delivery season from the age estimation of kitten by calculating an ideal growth curve based on by tooth eruption and body weight. A provisional breeding events of the female Iriomote cat is as follows. Most of females mate in March - April. After about 60 days of gestation period they deliver kitten in May - June. Maternal care go on by the independence of the kittens in age of four months. A remarkable feature of the breeding activity of the female Iriomote cat is that they do not show a narrow seasonality of breeding, although a small peak is recognized. |
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