Kodkod Cat Facts For Kids
Kodkod is the unusual name for a small wild cat that lives in a small part of South America. The name “kodkod” was given to this cat by the Araucanian Indians. These are the ancient people who for a long time have lived in the part of Chile and Argentina where the kodkod is found. The picture below mentions the other names for this cat. The kodkod is a species of wild cat. This means it is different to the other wild cats. We don’t know a lot about this cat.
What It Looks Like
The cat is very small. It is the same size as the oncilla. Both are the smallest wild cats in the Americas. It is about the same size as a very small house cat or miniature domestic cat. It weighs from a bit more than 3 pounds to about 6 pounds (1.5 to 2.8 kilograms). The coat is “buff colored or a grayish-brown. “Buff” is a pale yellow-brown. The coat is covered with small, black spots. The tail is short and marked with dark bands. The back of the ears are black with a white spot in the middle.
kodkod Cat Facts For Kids. Credits: Degu and southern lapwing from iStockphoto (bought), words by Michael. Globe from iStockphoto and map and words added by Michael. Kodkod pictures – top picture copyright Jim Sanderson PhD. Bottom picture by Wikimedia Commons.
Where the Kodkod Lives
The cat lives in a small area of Chile and Argentina. Overall this area is about the same size as Texas, USA. It lives in the center and south of Chile and the far western parts of Argentina where the Andes Mountains are.
This cat lives in forests that are on the slopes of the Andes Mountains.
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Behavior
This cat is awake and active during daytime and nighttime. For a small wild cat, they travel a long way when hunting. One male cat traveled for 5 kilometers during the evening. This is just over 3 miles.
When resting in daytime or at night they usually choose a place that has plenty of cover from plants and bushes. Sometimes they rest in a tree. They are excellent climbers.
This is a secretive cat. They hunt rodents, birds and lizards in the forest. As shown in the picture their prey includes the southern lapwing and a rodent called a “degu”.. It does its hunting on the ground and not in trees. “Prey” means the animals that the cat hunts, catches, kills and eats.
Home Range
“Home range” means the place that a wild cat considers its territory. For the kodkod, the average size of its home range in the Laguna San Rafael National Park, Chile was found to be 1.5 square kilometers. That is an area about 1 kilometer by one and half kilometers, which is about half of a mile by a bit less than a mile.
Home range size for kodkod in a part of Chile
Dangers To This Cat
As usual the dangers to this cat come from people and the total number of kodkods in the world is getting smaller each year. The forests where they live are being chopped down by people to make money. Also farmers plant forests in the place of the original forest that the kodkod does not like. These things prevent the cat from living. Finally, the cat sometimes attacks farmer’s hens. Farmers don’t like this and kill the cat.
There are very few photographs of this cat. This shows that they are rare and secretive as mentioned.
I love kodkods
Thanks for commenting.
Vent and move on. If you actually read any of the articles on the blog you would see that is one of the main themes covered time and time again. I’m sorry that someone offended you today and you feel you need to take it out on us. What more can I say.
While you have managed to drive your one-and-only native cat species to extinction with your own invasive species pet cats. Not counting all the thousands of other native species that you’ve already made extinct.
http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/16/scottish-wildcat-extinction
“Essentially the Highland wildcat is being eradicated by an alien invasive species: the domestic cat.”
Go ahead, let more of your man-made, selectively bred, vermin cats roam free. What do you care about even your OWN native animals.
You people are certainly no role-models for the rest of the planet. That’s absolutely certain.
You care about native cat species in other countries but could care less about your own.
Blatant and bald-faced hypocrites much? Then you wonder why you are so disliked and despised across the globe.
You make a mass of assumptions in your comment. You have presumed that I don’t care about the demise of the Scottish wild cat. Of course I do. The initil problem with the Scottish wild cat occurred hundreds of years ago in the UK when it was hunted. Now it mates with domestic cats producing hybrids. I know all about the Scottish wildcat. By the way, I have never proclaimed that the UK is better than any other country:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/British-Are-Not-True-Animal-Lovers.html
I think it is horrible what has happened to the Scottish wildcat.
I am not a hypocrite. You should not be so impolite.
Also you presume that the British are dispised everywhere. Where did you get that idea from? It simply is not true. If it was we would not have so many immigrants coming to the country 🙂 By the way the human is the worst alien species. You are a classic example. At one time there were no humans in North America. The human is a non-native species in America and the most damaging to wildlife by far.