Mimi Torchia Boothby

The most endangered cat in North and South America – The Andes Cat

This little cat is called locally “Gato Andino” its fur is greyish with brownish yellow blotches that are distributed as vertical lines at both sides of the body, giving the appearance of continuous stripes. The tail of the Andean cat is very long (66 – 75% of the head and body length), thick and cylindrical, with a fluffy aspect and with 6 to 9 wide rings of dark brown to black colour. Their legs also have dark and narrower blotches or stripes, but they don’t form complete rings. They weigh somewhere between 9 and 12 pounds.

The Andean cat lives in rocky areas at high elevations of the Andean region of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Perú, adapted to an arid inhospitable climate. Little is known about this elusive cat, but it is considered sacred by the locals, unfortunately, its skin is used to bless Llama herds and the like; so a Andean cat unfortunate enough to be spotted by a person is usually a dead one, since they are not afraid of humans and their skins are prized by locals.

There are some conservation and education programs right now that are focusing on the plight of this cat. They are bringing it into the schools and teaching children about them.

This painting is 16″ x 20″ and was done with watercolors on fine Arches paper. It is for sale for $350.00 all proceeds of the sale of this painting will go to the organizations that are trying to preserve this cat. If you love this painting, but can’t buy it, please share it with your friends. Wouldn’t it be awesome to be part of the effort to save this cat?
I’m sorry that I don’t have a better photo of the painting, it is much too big for my scanner, but it is absolutely beautiful. I am very pleased with this painting.

here are a couple useful links to learn more about this cat:

http://smallcats.org/ContactSCCA.html
http://www.gatoandino.org

photo reference credit goes to Jim Sanderson, who has actually seen four of these cats, more than any one else in the world.

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22 responses to “The most endangered cat in North and South America – The Andes Cat”

  1. You once again have created a lovely post and educated us on another beautiful creature .Through your art and stories hopefully people become more aware of the unfortunate plight some creatures have to endure and more is established in creating a safer haven for them on earth. Beautiful, beautiful painting, the Il Cato Andino is gorgeously picked.Thanks for sharing.

  2. You have once again shared a beautiful post with us and now I’ m enamored with another creature of God. The Cato Andino is precious and I truly hope the more people are educated the less chances they come in harms way but instead find a safe heaven on earth. gorgeous art work. Thankful for sharing.

  3. Oh, I so love the stories and art that you share with us here. Their unfortunate plight is sad but true and the more people you touch with your art and stories the more we become educated and hopefully help these beautiful creatures away from harms way. The Cato Andino is another creature of God’s that I’ve become enamored with. Thanks for sharing.

  8. this is completely amazing. I am from Chile and had never heard of this cat. I will forward the link to people I still know there.

    Gorgeous painting too – it’s great to see those who are masterful with the medium 😀

  9. Just gorgeous. LOVE your art sooooo much!
    Keep doing the cats. They are wonderful subjects that your love for shines through.
    Happy PPF!
    Sheri Cook
    Happy Horse Studio

  13. I love coming to your blog as I always learn about cats I didn’t even know existed. It’s alway bittersweet though as inevitably they are facing extinction because of humans. This is another beautiful painting.

  14. The signature with link directs the comment recipient to the blog that the commenter would like for you to visit. In a case like mine where I have multiple blogs, I will direct the person I’m visiting to the blog I think would interest them most or to a specific blog post that may relate to what they’ve written about on theirs. For example, the link I’ll leave now has to do with cats, which seems to be a topic that interests you. I don’t see this as advertising as much as establishing connections with ones audience.

    Lee
    A cat’s memoir
    Wrote By Rote

  15. Interesting–never heard of this cat. Lovely painting. The hyperlink you left on your comment at the A to Z Blog brought me directly here. Nice and easy, that’s the way I like it

    Lee
    An A to Z Co-Host
    Tossing It Out
    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge

  16. ciao, very nice this car…beatiful mouvement and colours. It is like he wait a bad surprise…
    Ciao, Floriana

  21. Such a beautiful cat. (Yes, I’m a cat person.) My heart sank when I read how they weren’t afraid of humans and usually ended up dead because of it. I tweeted this post.

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