Jaguarundi: a cat that hides in time instead of space
(writing in progress)
The jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) is the most aberrant member of the cat family, having plain colouration in combination with a small head and an extremely long body and tail.
One interpretation is that camouflage patterns (disruptive colouration e.g. stripes, bands, spots, blotches and rosettes) are unnecessary on the coat of the jaguarundi because the legs are so short that this felid can remain hidden among low vegetation even while moving, in emulation of weasels and other long-bodied, short-legged mustelids (Mustelidae).
However, the colouration of the jaguarundi is, in certain ways, the most complex of any felid, and is unexplained by cover because this species is among the most diurnal of its family.
Colour-polymorphism is defined as variation in colouration that can occur within a given litter even if this is fathered by only one male. It occurs in other felids, mainly in the form of melanism, which occurs in at least 11 species of felids.
However, the jaguarundi takes colour-polymorphism to extremes, as follows:
- this species has at least seven colour morphs, particularly affecting the appearance of the mouth;
- the jaguarundi is the only species of felid in which the mouth remains conspicuous in a melanistic colour-morph; and
- the brightest colour-morph (in which the entire body apart from the mouth and chest are a fawn hue usually described as reddish brown) is odd in that the mouth is always conspicuously pale.
The function of this colour-polymorphism is not only to hide the jaguarundi from its prospective prey by means of complicating its appearance, but also to confuse its identity in the eyes of larger predators, particularly the puma (Puma concolor, which naturally occurred throughout the range of the jaguarundi and is now regarded as belonging to the same genus). This reduces the vigilance of potential prey animals, which find it difficult to form a search image for the predator.
This confusion with the puma could work at several levels, as follows:
- the fawn colour-morph of the jaguarundi has similar colouration to the puma – including the dark-and-pale contrast of its mouth – despite being a far smaller species;
- the contrasting colouration of the mouth is, in both jaguarundi and puma, accentuated by a fang-baring expression which is readily adopted in confrontation - in contrast to certain other felid species, e.g. Lynx canadensis, which have no accentuation of facial expression by means of facial colouration and are extremely reluctant to fang-bare; and
- all colour-morphs of the jaguarundi that possess a conspicuous mouth show some facial resemblance to the infants of the puma - which possibly protects the jaguarundi by triggering the maternal instinct in the larger felid.
This confusion of the identity of the jaguarundi, with ostensible mimicry of adults and juveniles of the puma, , may be adaptive in protecting the smaller felid from its larger relative. If so, this would be an unprecedented nuance of aposematic mimicry.
The strategy would be unlikely to work were it not for one crucial aspect of the biology of the jaguarundi: this species has extremely sparse populations and large home ranges, allowing the species to ‘hide in time’ rather than hiding in space as is typical of felids. No individual of the puma is likely to encounter the jaguarundi frequently enough to realise the deception.
Jaguarundi appeals to parental puma
http://images2.pics4learning.com/catalog/j/jaguarundi.jpg
The fawn colouration of the jaguarundi1 is unusual for a small member of the cat family, but may seem unsurprising because it is the closest relative of the much larger puma, the plainest of all felids.
However, the common colour-morph of the jaguarundi resembles the puma2 as a form of mimicry regardless of its shared ancestry. The puma would kill the jaguarundi at first sight, but the combination of small body size, fawn colouration and a conspicuous face is enough to momentarily confuse the larger species into thinking it has encountered a juvenile puma. This confusion – which is exacerbated by the jaguarundi being colour-polymorphic3 and everywhere so scarce that encounters are few and far between – may buy the jaguarundi precious moments in which it can escape the wrath of the puma.
1 Puma yagouaroundi
2 Puma concolor
3 the puma is by contrast monomorphic
The fawn colouration of the jaguarundi1 is unusual for a small member of the cat family. This may seem unsurprising, because it is the closest relative of the much larger puma, the plainest of all felids.
Jaguarundi has the dullest yet most confusing colours of all cats. The jaguarundi[Puma yagouaroundi] is ostensibly among the plainest-coloured[lacking even the expected countershading] of all felids, but in a sense has the most complicated colouration of the 40 species in its family[i.e. Felidae]. This is because this aberrant cat takes colour-polymorphism to extremes that are virtually impossible to summarise concisely in a zoological description such as that in a field-guide to Neotropical mammals. Not only are there several colour-morphs, but each morph has sub-morphs[For example, some individuals have a dorsal stripe; others (at least in the fawn morph, at least) have a pale chest; some individuals (at least in the darkest morph) have brown heads, paler than the dark brown body; etc.], all possible in the same litter. Because the jaguarundi is found only as occasional individuals[i.e. population densities are everywhere small] throughout its range, it follows that there must be few encounters in which this weasel-shaped felid is actually identified by either its prey or its own potential predators such as larger carnivores.
http://images2.pics4learning.com/catalog/j/jaguarundi.jpg
An alternative view:
The common colour-morph of the jaguarundi resembles the puma2 as a form of mimicry regardless of its shared ancestry. The puma would kill the jaguarundi at first sight, but the combination of small body size, fawn colouration and a conspicuous face is enough to momentarily confuse the larger species into thinking it has encountered a juvenile puma. This confusion – which is exacerbated by the jaguarundi being colour-polymorphic3 and everywhere so scarce that encounters are few and far between – may buy the jaguarundi precious moments in which it can escape the wrath of the puma.
Firstly, it is common for felids to have both a whitish upper ‘lip’ (not strictly correct because this surface is covered in dense pelage and extends beyond the concept of an upper lip in e.g. humans) and a whitish ‘lower lip/chin’. Even the domestic cat, at least in part, conforms to this pattern.
Secondly, those felids which minimise the conspicuous paleness of the ‘upper lip’ tend to be those the facial patterns of which are most thoroughly inconspicuous. The leopard (Panthera pardus) is perhaps the epitome of this, because its ‘upper lip’ is essentially marked disruptively in conformity with the rest of the animal (other than its back-of-ears and its tail tip). Even comparing jaguar (Panthera onca) and leopard, we can see that the pale area on the ‘upper lip’ is more extensive on jaguar than on leopard.
Thirdly, I interpret this conspicuous-tending paleness of the ‘upper lip’ and ‘lower lip/chin’, so typical of many felids, as essentially a form of parenthetic warning colouration, in the sense that it is not extensive enough to detract from the overall conspicuousness of the animal at any distance, but becomes a way of accentuating the mouth in combination with a fang-baring expression close-up and in conjunction with mouth-opening, retraction of the ‘upper lip’ and hissing/growling.
Fourthly, I hesitate to label this a form of aposematism for two reasons. a) I think the concept of aposematism is essentially interspecific, which makes it only half-apt because felids use their facial patterns intraspecifically as well as interspecifically. b) I see the main function of aposematism as being the hinting of an otherwise undisclosed/non-apparent/’hidden’ defensive capability, the anal gland secretions of skunks being a classic example. If the ‘weapon’ involved is plainly apparent (e.g. sharp canines in any felid) then any accentuation, by means of tonal contrast, of these weapons can be described as ‘warning colouration’ sensu lato, but the whole concept of aposematism is rather poorly exemplified by it. I have toyed with a hypothetical distinction between aposematic colouration (interspecific, plus unapparent defensive capability) on the one hand and warpaint colouration (intraspecific in part, defensive capability both apparent and generally recognised, e.g. teeth or claws) on the other hand.
Fifthly, the pale areas on ‘upper lip’ and ‘lower lip/chin’ in felids are, in many species, accentuated by dark tracts. One dark tract is the gums and mouth-linings, which tend to be visible only in the fang-baring expression because they tend to be hidden when the mouth is closed. Another dark tract is the ‘bracketing’ markings to the ‘muzzle’ seen in e.g. caracal and puma. The latter tend to be best-developed in felid spp. with cryptic rather than disruptive colouration, but this generalisation is limited by e.g. the fact that the lion (Panthera leo) has no dark accentuation on the sides of the ‘muzzle’. The main examples of this ‘dark-and-pale’ tonal contrast on the pelage of the ‘muzzle’ sensu lato in felids are caracal (Old World) and puma (New World), and this spp. are so plain that even the accentuation on the tail-tip is hardly present in them. They are extremely ‘facially accentuated’ felids, not so?
Sixthly, in the case of the puma, the facial accentuation typical of the spp. has had ‘corollary’ effects, in adaptive terms, because the puma is both the most widespread of New World felids and the largest species in all areas lacking the jaguar. Because the puma is ‘top felid’ over most of the Americas, it has paid certain smaller felids to mimic its facial pattern with the proviso that such mimicry has worked only under the conditions that a) the population density of the smaller felid is not much greater than that of the puma, and b) the mimicking species also shows colour-polymorphism, compounding the confusion of species-identity.
Hence I would hypothesise as follows:
Firstly, in the case of the caracal, there has been convergent evolution with the puma, in terms of colouration (the ears being the major exception) but there has been no ‘corollary’ adaptation in other felids.
Secondly, in the case of the puma there are two sympatric groups of felids which have ‘capitalised’ on the puma’s facial pattern to get some protection from other predators by means of deception. These are the jaguarundi and the pampas cat complex.
Thirdly, although it seems obvious that any resemblance to the puma (in conjunction with confusing colour-polymorphism) would to some degree protect the jaguarundi and the pampas cat complex from other predators (e.g. canids), a more subtle and intriguing possibility is that such facial mimicry might also protect some of these taxa and morphs from the puma itself.
If so, the hypothesised mechanism is that there is enough resemblance, in crucial features with great emotional ‘triggering’ connected to them in the mind of the puma, to give the puma some pause as to whether it is looking at another species of felid (which it would attack outright) or a juvenile of its own species (which might buy a few precious seconds of safety for the smaller species of felid).
Are the black markings on the face of the puma cubs and adults less important than the white lip they share with some individuals of the reddish morph of the jaguarundi? Does this have evolutionary /selective significance despite that even not all of the red jaguarundi have it?
Do we not know that faces are particularly important, that motion attracts attention, and that infantile features trigger certain protective emotions? All these trends are indeed so strong that they transcend the species-level. We love cats because they have faces, more or less like ours. When our domestic cats look at us, they tend to look at our faces rather than at e.g. our feet or our clothes. We tend to watch the ears or tail of a cat when it moves, and when a cat fang-bares we tend to look at the expression, partly because it involves motion. It seems fair to assume that felids do likewise in their own social interactions. We humans love infants of various animals as different (and potentially threatening to us) from us as pigs and elephants and lions, because the programming for parental protectiveness so exceptionally strong.
It seems likely that all of the colour-polymorphic spp. of Carnivora have some environmental variation in the incidence of the various colour-morphs. However, any incidence of colour-polymorphism within a broad region is likely to confuse the enemies of the colour-polymorphic species to some degree, not so? I.e. irrespective of some ‘camouflage value’ in the colour-polymorphism, there may be a function in retarding the formation of a search-image in the minds of the larger, inimical Carnivora.
It is true that puma juveniles differ in various ways from the adult jaguarundi, and the difference in spotting may be less important than the differences in body proportions. However, my hypothesis does not depend on exact similarity; it depends only on certain crucial similarities to which the mind of the puma is particularly programmed. In particular the markings on the faces of juveniles of the jaguarundi seem not to be crucial in my hypothesis, do they?
The color morphs of jaguarundy tend to be environmentally associated
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304026191_Biogeography_of_polymorphic_phenotypes_Mapping_and_ecological_modelling_of_coat_colour_variants_in_an_elusive_Neotropical_cat_the_jaguarundi_Puma_yagouaroundi?_esc=publicationCoverPdf&el=1_x_3&enrichId=rgreq-3c7cb9b5a312897e7191f17ecd929041-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzMwNDAyNjE5MTtBUzo1OTY1NTEzNjE2NDI0OTZAMTUxOTI0MDMzNjk0MQ%3D%3D
The puma cubs are heavily spotted , no jaguarund is
3 The face of a puma cub is heavily marked with prominent black stripes/spots - labial, zigomatic and frontal , in some jaguarundi cubs of the reddish color morph the labial dark spots are present, but the other marks are extremely faint if not present at all , no prominent facial marks in the jaguarundi cubs of other color morphs nor in the adults of all morphs
I have come to see the jaguarundi as ‘a cat that hides in time instead of space’, as follows.
What our peers already realise is that the jaguarundi[1] is perhaps the most aberrant member of the cat family, having plain colouration in combination with a small head and an extremely long body and tail. If pressed, what our peers might offer is that camouflage patterns[2] are unnecessary on the coat of the jaguarundi because the legs are so short that this felid can remain hidden among low vegetation even while moving, in emulation of weasels and other long-bodied, short-legged mustelids[3].
However, the colouration of the jaguarundi is, in certain ways, the most complex of any felid, and is unexplained by cover because this species is among the most diurnal of its family. I offer the following new interpretation of the adaptive colouration of this species.
Although colour-polymorphism[4] occurs in other felids[5], the jaguarundi takes it to extremes, as follows. Firstly, this species has at least seven colour morphs, particularly affecting the appearance of the mouth. Secondly, the jaguarundi is the only species of felid in which the mouth remains conspicuous in a melanistic colour-morph. And thirdly, the brightest of the colour-morphs[6] is odd in that the mouth is always conspicuously pale.
I hypothesise that the function of this colour-polymorphism is not only to hide the jaguarundi from its prospective prey by means of complicating its appearance[7], but also to confuse its identity in the eyes of larger predators, particularly the puma[8].
This confusion with the puma could work at several levels, as follows. Firstly, the fawn colour-morph of the jaguarundi has similar colouration to the puma – including the dark-and-pale contrast of its mouth – despite being a far smaller species. Secondly, the contrasting colouration of the mouth is, in both jaguarundi and puma, accentuated by a fang-baring expression which is readily[9] adopted in confrontation. And thirdly, all colour-morphs of the jaguarundi that possess a conspicuous mouth show some facial resemblance[10] to the infants of the puma.
Confusion of the identity of the jaguarundi, with ostensible mimicry of adults and juveniles of the puma, may be adaptive in protecting the smaller felid from its larger relative. If so, this would be a novel aspect of aposematic mimicry. The strategy would be unlikely to work were it not for one crucial aspect of the biology of the jaguarundi: this species has extremely sparse populations and large home ranges, allowing it to ‘hide in time’ rather than hiding in space as is typical of felids. No individual of the puma is likely to encounter the jaguarundi frequently enough to realise the deception.
[1] Felidae: Puma yagouaroundi
[2] disruptive colouration e.g. stripes, bands, spots, blotches and rosettes
[3] Mustelidae
[4] defined as variation in colouration that can occur within a given litter even if this is fathered by only one male
[5] mainly in the form of melanism, which occurs in at least 11 species of felids
[6] in which the entire body apart from the mouth and chest are a fawn hue usually described as reddish brown
[7] which reduces the vigilance of potential prey animals, which find it difficult to form a search image for the predator
[8] Puma concolor, which naturally occurred throughout the range of the jaguarundi and is now regarded as belonging to the same genus
[9] in contrast to certain other felid species, e.g. Lynx canadensis, which have no accentuation of facial expression by means of facial colouration and are extremely reluctant to fang-bare
[10] which possibly protects the jaguarundi by triggering the maternal instinct in the larger felid
Conventional view: The jaguarundi4[1] is the plainest of the small wild cats. Camouflage patterns are superfluous because its short legs allow this weasel-like species of tropical America to hide even in low vegetation.
New interpretation: The common fawn colour-morph of the jaguarundi mimics the facial colouration of the puma5[2] despite the great difference in body size. This resemblance confuses the identity of the jaguarundi in the eyes of the puma – which kills other felids6[3] on sight. This tactic works because the jaguarundi naturally has such sparse populations that the puma is unlikely to learn from experience.
1 Puma yagouaroundi
2 Puma concolor
3 the puma is by contrast monomorphic
4[1] Felidae: Puma yagouaroundi
5[2] Puma concolor
6[3] the puma differs from the jaguarundi in being monomorphic
(writing in progress)
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