What is "pampas cat"

Pampas \Pam"pas\, n. pl. [Sp., fr. Peruv. pampa a field, plain.] Vast grass-covered plains in the central and southern part of the Argentine Republic in South America. The term is sometimes used in a wider sense for the plains east of the Andes extending from Bolivia to Southern Patagonia.

Pampas cat (Zo["o]l.), a South American wild cat ( Felis pajeros). It has oblique transverse bands of yellow or brown. It is about three and a half feet long. Called also straw cat.

Pampas deer (Zo["o]l.), a small, reddish-brown, South American deer ( Cervus campestris syn. Blastocerus campestris).

Pampas grass (Bot.), a very tall ornamental grass ( Gynerium argenteum) with a silvery-white silky panicle. It is a native of the pampas of South America.

n. ''Leopardus pajeros'', a small South American cat.

The Pampas cat (Leopardus pajeros) is a small cat native to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and possibly far southwestern Colombia. It is named after the pampas, but occurs in grassland, shrubland, and dry forest at elevations up to .

It has traditionally been included in the colocolo (L. colocolo), but was split primarily based on differences in pelage colour/pattern and cranial measurements. The split is not supported by genetic work, leading some authorities to maintain it as a subspecies of the colocolo. Confusingly, when the colocolo includes the Pampas cat and Pantanal cat as subspecies, the "combined" species is sometimes referred to as the Pampas cat.

The Pampas cat is currently classified as " Near Threatened" in the IUCN Red List as habitat conversion and destruction may cause the population to decline in the future.

Pampas cats have not been studied much in the wild and little is known about their hunting habits. There have been reports of the cat hunting rodents and birds at night, and also hunting domestic poultry near farms.