‘World’s Grumpiest Cat’ Captured in Adorable Trail Camera Footage
In China, a trail camera has been set up right next to the den entrance belonging to a family of Pallas’s cat — and it’s capturing adorable footage.
Dubbed the “world’s grumpiest cat” for its glum-looking facial expression, Pallas’s cats are famously secretive and elusive, staying away from humans and making themselves difficult to study, which is why the trail camera footage is so fascinating.
The feline family has been recorded in Qinghai Province. The state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) reports that a mother Pallas’s cat has been spotted basking in the sun with four fluffy kittens. “These rare wildcats are protected in China,” CGTN says. “They prey mainly on rodents, pikas, and small birds.”
The footage has been going viral across multiple platforms. But as is often the case with China, it is difficult to extract information. Whether the trail camera has been set up by researchers or by an enthusiast is unclear. Some accused the footage of being AI, but the multiple angles and different shots make it clear that someone is looking after the remote camera and the footage is genuine. People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, has also published the footage and credited it to Zhiduo County Convergence Media Center.
Pallas’s cats are certainly known to live in Qinghai Province. Its range extends from the Caucasus eastward to Central Asia. Last year, a trail camera captured a Pallas’s cat in the rocky habitats of Himachal Pradesh, India, which was the first ever photographic evidence of the Pallas’s cat (also known as a Manul) in the region.
Pallas’s cats’ thick fur coats and short, sturdy legs make them perfect mountain dwellers. The Pallas’s cat’s small, flattened ears are shielded from the cold by its dense fur, which also insulates the rest of its body. Its wide paws help it navigate snowy terrain while offering extra warmth, much like natural snowshoes. To conserve heat, the Pallas’s cat can also curl its tail around its body.
They prefer to live at higher elevations, using their expert camouflage markings to blend in with their surroundings. Naturally secretive, it is rarely-seen and little-known.
About the size of a housecat, Pallas’s cats, also called manul, are solitary animals that feed on small mammals and birds. Unlike other cat species, they have distinctive round pupils, which give them better eyesight to hunt in their preferred prowling times of dawn and dusk. Their wide-set and flat ears are another unique feature, allowing their outline to be less noticeable by skittish prey.
