Jon,
I saw this blog post from a war correspondent who has extensively covered Afganistan. Apparently there have long been rumoursof very large cats in Kandahar province of Afganistan, which the locals usually laughed off as mere supposition.However, when the US soldiery started seeing these cats on night vision and even thermal imaging kit (the US Army has some quite incredible technology these days) they were taken seriously. Here are photos of one such cat.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/afcats-wild-cats-of-afghanistan.htm
I saw this blog post from a war correspondent who has extensively covered Afganistan. Apparently there have long been rumoursof very large cats in Kandahar province of Afganistan, which the locals usually laughed off as mere supposition.However, when the US soldiery started seeing these cats on night vision and even thermal imaging kit (the US Army has some quite incredible technology these days) they were taken seriously. Here are photos of one such cat.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/afcats-wild-cats-of-afghanistan.htm
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sadly there is no scale given.
According to Wikipedia, the following species of felid live in Afghanistan (although I would question the lion):
Genus: Acinonyx
Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus VU
Genus: CaracalCaracal Caracal caracal LC
Genus: Felis
Jungle Cat Felis chaus LC
Genus: Lynx
Eurasian Lynx Lynx lynx NT
Genus: Prionailurus
Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis LC
Subfamily: Pantherinae
Genus: Panthera
Lion Panthera leo VU
Genus: Uncia
Snow Leopard Uncia uncia EN 
Posts
6 comments:
Isn't that a snopw leopard? Rare but not unexpected, I should think
I'm going with either jungle cat.
The jungle cat has the worst name of all common English names. I don't think any of them actually live in jungles.
The reason why I'm going with jungle cat is that it has tufts on the ears.
It's very rare in Afghanistan.
But zoological assays of Afghanistan's wildlife have really been lacking until-- ironically-- NATO occupied it.
It's not a caracal.
Caracals are much darker tawny in color, and they don't have a black-tipped tail or any black stripes on it.
I think it can only be the jungle cat.
Certainly looks like a Snow Leopard to me.......with that bushy tail and the thick coat. The promise of ration packs in the winter must have brought it down...
It is a sand cat. Same coloration, size, tail banding pattern (the banding circles are more solid and less sporadic than the jungle cat). It also has wide ears which look like pyramids. The jungle cat doesn't. Again, the color of the fur as well.
Almost certainly a Jungle Cat, just look at any picture and you'll see, and that's a very healthy winter coat it's wearing too.
Most definitely not a snow leopard, as the tail is far too short and the lack of any patterns on the fur except the tip of the tail which identifies it for a Jungle Cat.
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