'Grumpy Cats' Are Newest Residents At Elmwood Park Zoo

NORRISTOWN, PA — Curious, carnivorous, and cantankerous in countenance, Elmwood Park Zoo's newest residents have arrived.

Among them are the distinctly visaged Pallas's cat, also known as the manul. They're natives of the frigid highlands of Asia, from Russia and Mongolia to Kazakhstan, Iran, and as far west as Armenia and Georgia.

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While bearing thicker fur and a bushier tail than any other known feline, they are roughly the same size as the average house cat. Besides the fur, it's the face that will often give them away. Both attributes are likely adaptations to the cold climates where they live, biologists believe.

"Their skull shape gives them small foreheads and high-set eyes, which may help them hunt while lying flat as snow builds up around them," Elmwood's veterinarians shared, jibing them in a recent announcement as "the grumpiest cat you ever did see."

Elmwood has two manuls now, both males: Kasper and Reza. They are not out on exhibit just yet, but will be in the near future.

They typically hunt rodents like pikas and voles, and other small mammals and birds. They're very unlike North American counterparts in one way, however: they've been known to thrive at extremely high altitudes, living between 10,000 and 15,000 feet and as high as 16,000 feet.

While Pallas's cats are not currently considered an endangered species, their numbers are generally believed to be in wide decline due to habitat fragmentation and their consumption of rodents that have eaten poison.