Mainland Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) Classification

The leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), a small wild feline native to Asia, is known for its considerable genetic diversity across its range; however, studies on the mitochondrial genome of Prionailurus bengalensis alleni, a subspecies endemic to Hainan, are lacking. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of the Hainan leopard cat.

Sequencing revealed a genome length of 16,936 bp, 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, and a control region. Phylogenetic analyses of the 13 protein-coding genes from the mitochondrial genomes of 11 subspecies of leopard cats revealed two well-supported clades (Clade A and Clade B). Within Clade A, P. b. alleni clustered with P. b. chinensis instead of P. b. bengalensis. Genetic distance and divergence time analyses supported the synonymization of P. b. alleni, P. b. chinensis, and P. b. horsfieldi with P. b. bengalensis. P. b. iriomotensis could be considered a synonym for P. b. euptilurus. Clade B corresponds to the recently the recognized species Prionailurus javanensis.

Overall, our findings provide strong support for two P. bengalensis subspecies (P. b. bengalensis and P. b. euptilurus) and two P. javanensis subspecies (P. j. javanensis and P. j. sumatranus), and confirm the interest of using mitochondrial genome for gaining insights into phylogenetic relationships and subspecies taxonomy.

Tu, Feiyun & Qiao, Yaqin & Bai, Yiran. (2025). Original Study Complete mitogenome of Prionailurus bengalensis alleni and taxonomic revisions of leopard cat subspecies. Mammalia. 89. 10.1515/mammalia-2024-0083.

The Mainland leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis ) has a wide distribution, but little is known about its ecology in Nepal.

We deployed 36 pairs of cameras for three weeks in 2020 in a non-protected area of the Nepalese Himalayan foothills.

We obtained 18 leopard cat detections, however simultaneous detections on both flanks never occurred.

We used a multi-session spatially-explicit capture-recapture (SECR) model and a Spatial Partial Identity Model (SPIM) to estimate its population density, which was 10.74 (CI = 4.32–26.7) and 12.83 (CCI = 3.09–25.99) individuals per 100 km ² , suggesting a healthy population for this area.

Greenspan, Evan & Bhandari, Shivish & Adhikari, Binaya & Nielsen, Clay & Anile, Stefano. (2024). Mainland Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis) population density in an unprotected mixed landscape of the Himalayan foothills in Nepal. Mammalia. 10.1515/mammalia-2024-0067.

Climate-only species distribution models are commonly used to evaluate a species' vulnerability to future climate change. However, these models may overestimate a species' vulnerability when occurrence data comes from only a subset of the species' historical range due to anthropogenic range contractions. This study investigated the impacts of using climate-only species distribution models with anthropogenically truncated occurrence data on future predictions, using the little-studied leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) of mainland Tropical Asia as a case study.

Like most other species in mainland Tropical Asia, the leopard cat's current distribution represents a non-random subset of its historical range due to the disproportionate loss of lowland forests in the region. We found that climate-only species distribution models trained on current occurrence data significantly over- estimated the leopard cat's vulnerability to future climate change, predicting considerable range contractions by 2081-2100 due to rising summer temperatures. A similar range contraction was observed using a virtual species whose occurrence was solely predicated on extant forest cover and not climate. This suggested the leopard cat's apparent vulnerability to future climate change was driven by a spurious relationship with summer temperatures, as modern occurrence data primarily came from refugial forest cover in the region's cooler uplands rather than the warmer, human-dominated lowlands.This bias was not apparent, however, from our current predictions, which had high predictive accuracy and were spatially consistent with current knowledge of the species' distribution; an observation highlighting the inadequacy of predictive accuracy alone as a metric for selecting models in studies where transferability to novel environments is critical.

We next considered two potential strategies for detecting and mitigating the effects of anthropogenically truncated occurrence data: 1) the use of hybrid models that incorporate both climatic and non-climatic variables, and 2) the use of climate-only models with historical datasets. Despite using different data, both proposed strategies produced spatially similar predictions of present and future leopard cat occurrence with little-to-no range contractions predicted. We thus recommend all species distribution modeling studies interested in assessing a species' vulnerability to climate change compare future predictions derived from climate-only and hybrid models as well as compare predictions from current and historical datasets, as differences in predictions can highlight the presence of potential biases and other limitations.

Finally, we discuss our findings as they apply to both our focal species and to the overall field of species distribution modeling.

Petersen, W.J.; Savini, T.
Lowland forest loss and climate-only distribution models exaggerate a forest-dependent species' vulnerability to climate change
2023 Ecological Informatics (78): 1-10