This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Tsushima leopard cats are an endangered species found only on this isolated island. The most recent government survey estimated the population at around 150 individuals, and because domestic cats also inhabit the same landscape, introgression is a legitimate conservation concern.
That is why a team of researchers from Kyoto University became concerned when, during a field survey, they spotted at least three Tsushima leopard cats with shortened tails, a trait relatively common in domestic cats but not previously observed in leopard cats. The team captured one of these cats for examination and discovered that its tail was half the normal length. This motivated them to investigate whether the tail abnormality reflected recent domestic cat ancestry or a variation arising within the leopard cat population.
"An unusual phenotype can immediately raise concerns about hybridization, but we wanted to determine objectively what the genome actually tells us before drawing conclusions from appearance alone," says first author Yuki Matsumoto. The team analyzed the entire genome of the short-tailed Tsushima leopard cat and compared it with genome data from 15 additional leopard cats, five domestic cats sampled on Tsushima Island and four continental Amur leopard cats as an external wild reference. These analyses included principal component analysis, genome-wide inbreeding estimates, mitochondrial DNA phylogeny, ADMIXTURE and f-statistics to assess ancestry and introgression, along with assessments of two genes associated with tail abnormalities in domestic cats.
The findings are published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. The results revealed no evidence of domestic cat introgression in either the short-tailed Tsushima leopard cat or the 15 other leopard cats sampled. Each step of the whole-genome analysis placed the short-tailed cat firmly within the Tsushima leopard cat population and did not detect any abnormalities.
However, the underlying cause of the tail abnormality remains a mystery. The team's observations of Tsushima leopard cats with short tails in different locations suggest there may be more to this rare phenotype. In the future, the team hopes to examine more short-tailed individuals and is developing noninvasive genetic monitoring that could help track the leopard cats without capturing them.
This study represents the first clinical and genomic characterization of a short-tailed individual in the wild cat genus Prionailurus. "Appearance alone can be misleading when managing endangered wildlife," says Matsumoto. "By combining long-term field observations, veterinary examination and genome-wide data, we can make conservation decisions on the basis of genetic evidence rather than phenotype alone." Yuki Matsumoto et al, Genome-wide assessment of suspected domestic cat introgression in the critically endangered Tsushima leopard cat, Global Ecology and Conservation (2026).
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