The Lowdown
The Pallas’s cat or Manul (Otocolobus manul) is an ancient, solitary felid adapted to the harsh, high-altitude grasslands and rocky steppes of Central Asia. Roughly the size of a domestic housecat, its exceptionally long, dense coat gives it a distinctly stocky, plush appearance.
To withstand freezing temperatures dropping below -50°C, its fur is the densest of any wild cat, featuring a woolly undercoat topped by long guard hairs with white frosted tips. Unlike other small cats, its pupils remain round in bright light rather than constricting into vertical slits, providing panoramic peripheral vision across wide-open steppes.
Biological Fact: When stalking prey in deep snow, a Pallas’s cat will place its tail over its paws to protect them from the frozen ground.
Its low-set ears are positioned flat against the sides of its wide head, allowing the manul to crawl flat along stony ground and peer over the edges of rocky ridges without revealing its silhouette to vigilant pikas and predatory eagles.
