Distribution and habitat
The Pallas' Cat is patchily distributed in the grassland and montane steppe regions of Central Asia ranging from the Transbaikal region of Russia through Mongolia and the Altai Mountains to western China, Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan to the Caspian Sea (Geptner and Sludskii 1972), and north of the Himalayas from the Tibetan Plateau (Fox and Dorji 2007), Kashmir (Mallon 1991) and the Hindu Kush (Habibi 1977) to the Zagros Mountains in western Iran (Karami et al. in press).
In the following map,
markers point to locations where Pallas' Cats were recorded after 2000;
the 
anted markers indicate areas where they were sighted prior to the turn of the century. For further information about individual locations : click on the marker to zoom in.
References
- Fox, J. L. and Dorji, T. 2007. High elevation record for occurrence of the manul or Pallas' Cat on the northwestern Tibetan plateau, China. Cat News 46: 35.
- Geptner, V. G. and Sludskii, A. A. 1972. Mlekopitayushchie Sovetskogo Soiuza. Chast’ 2: Hishnye (gieny i koshki). Vysshaya Shkola, Moskva. (In Russian; English translation: Heptner, V. G., Sludskii, A. A.; Hoffmann, R. S. (eds.) 1992. Mammals of the Soviet Union. Vol. II, Part 2: Carnivora (Hyaenas and Cats). Smithsonian Institution Libraries and the National Science Foundation, Washington D.C.)
- Habibi, K. 1977. Mammals of Afghanistan - Their Distribution and Status (Chapter "Felids").
United Nations Development Programme - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Department of Forests and Range, Ministry of Agriculture, Kabul.
- Karami, M,. Ghadirian, T., Faizolahi, K. in press. The Atlas of Mammals of Iran. The Plan for the Land Society, Tehran.
- Mallon, D. P. 1991. Status and Conservation of Large Mammals in Ladakh. Biological Conservation 56 (1991): 101–119.
Text and map compiled by Angie Appel, January 2013; updated in March 2017.
Suggested citation:
Appel, A. 2013. Pallas' Cat: Distribution. Pallas' Cat Working Group.