Pallas’s cats are long-time social media sensations, notorious for their thick, fluffy appearance and grumpy-looking face.They roam 16 countries covering Central Asia’s steppe regions, mountains and semi-arid deserts.Relatively little is known of this elusive small cat. Glaring knowledge gaps exist about populations in large parts of its expansive range. Like many other small cats, researchers often rely on “bycatch” data — images captured during studies of snow leopards.This cat’s conservation status is considered “least concern,” but populations are fragmented and numbers are declining in some countries. Conservationists are working to preserve Pallas’s cats, also known as manul, in core habitats, but say that more work is needed rangewide.
Many already know Zelenogorsk — a manul, or Pallas’s cat, from Russia’s Novosibirsk Zoo — who became an internet sensation in 2022 after a video of him warming his paws on his tail was posted on YouTube. That clip has garnered more than 14 million views.
Many of the world’s 30-plus small cat species are relatively unknown, but thanks to its online fame as the world’s grumpiest cat, the manul bucks this trend.
“Pallas’s cats are known for being these really cranky-looking animals,” said Jan Janecka, a professor of biology at Duquesne University in the U.S. “It’s almost like a meme, how the facial expression they have is just really unique and funny.”
