If you have a house cat, it may like to curl up for a cozy nap in the corner of your couch. If you were to see a Pallas’ cat, you might think it looks a lot like a house cat because it is about the same size or just slightly larger. However a Pallas’ cat leads a much different life than a house cat. Instead of living in a warm house, it lives only on rocky steppes and stony outcroppings. Instead of sleeping on a comfortable couch, it sleeps in the old burrows of marmots, foxes or badgers or in cracks and caves among the rocks. Instead of eating cat food, the Pallas’ cat eats small rodents, especially pikas, and occasionally birds or insects.
A Pallas’ cat lives in parts of Asia where the climate is often cold and dry. Because it sometimes has to do its hunting over cold rocks and snow, a Pallas’ cat’s belly fur is about twice as long as the fur on its back and sides. It has a special clear third eyelid, called a nictitating membrane, which protects its eyes against cold winds and dust storms. Because of its short, stumpy legs, the Pallas’ cat is not an especially good runner, so it will try to hide among the rocks if it is chased. While hunting, it is also more likely to wait at the entrance of an animal’s burrow and ambush its prey than it is to try to chase it down.
Because Pallas’ cats are very solitary animals that have not yet been widely studied, it is uncertain how many there are in the wild. They used to be hunted in the thousands for their fur but are now protected in many areas. The number of Pallas’ cats has also decreased because of its choice of prey. Pikas are considered pests because they are carriers of disease and compete for grazing land with livestock. Because of this, people have begun poisoning pikas. This both lessens the Pallas’ cats’ food supply and leads to secondary poisoning.