Geoffroy's Cat - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Geoffroy's cat is named after the 19th century French zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844). Following his travels to South America in the early 19th century, Saint-Hilaire studied the cat while a professor of zoology in Paris, and identified five subspecies, based on geographic dispersement:

• Leopardus geoffroyi geoffroyi; Central Argentina
• Leopardus geoffroyi euxantha; Northern Argentina, Western Bolivia
• Leopardus geoffroyi leucobapta; Patagonia
• Leopardus geoffroyi paraguae; Paraguay, Southeastern Brazil, Uruguay, Northern Argentina
• Leopardus geoffroyi salinarum; Northwestern and Central Argentina

Genetic studies have shown that Geoffroy's cat is most closely related to the kodkod. At times it has been placed in the separate genus Oncifelis, together with the kodkod and colocolo, but it is now more commonly placed in Leopardus, a larger genus of small South American cats, which also includes the ocelot.