Its existence had been formerly hypothesised, but never did I expect to be given evidence that there is a species of actual otter-cat — known to its sadly misinformed friends as a jaguarundi, and to its grandmother as Herpailurus yaguarondi — roaming this otherwise-godforsaken earth. I’m not sure whether the fact it earns an entry on wikipedia makes it more or less likely that it’s all a hoax. For now, I’ll believe it, because it would be so wonderful if it were true. There is some hope for this world yet, although according to the IUCN, who are in turn trusting the plainly and modestly named Cat Specialist Group [oh, how I would love to attend their annual meetings], there is concern over the otter-cat’s “conservation status”, or in normal-speak, their chances of survival in this cruel universe, though on their scale this concern is described as LC, which stands for “[Of] Least Concern”, which is indeed confusing, until one realises it is only relative to concern for other endangered species. Someone should really sort that out.
Some pictures of the poor, poor animal are necessary at this juncture:
[courtesy of nhptv.org]
[courtesy of, but no thanks to, wikipedia and its acolytes]
