Movie Monday: Andean Cat

Challenges in Small Wild Cat Research

It’s one thing to study 300 pound tigers in the wild. It’s quite another to study tiny felines in large landscapes.

Can you see the small cat face looking right at the photographer in this photograph? And once you’ve found it, can you then identify the species?

Just one of the many challenges field biologists face in the world of small wild cat research!

Copyright Julio Ceilo

News From The Field: New Records of Pampas Cats

Wild cats can’t be saved without knowing what they need to survive in their natural habitat. What kind of habitat do they use? What are their activity patterns & social organizations? Without data collected by field biologists, conservation programs can’t be put in place. To further our educational efforts, we are posting regular Monday summaries of a paper written by wild cat field biologists, which briefly outlines their findings.

The pampas cat Leopardus colocolo is a small-sized, threatened felid that is poorly investigated. Even basic information about its geographic distribution is lacking. Herein, we present photographic records of pampas cat from two new localities of Cerrado and Pantanal biomes in the Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil, and also the current distribution of the species in this state. The records contribute to the understanding of the geographic distribution of the pampas cat in the different biomes of Brazil.

Mauricio N Godoi, Rodrigo Teribele, Rita Bianchi, Natalie Olifiers, Henrique “V Concone, Nilson L Xavier Filho

IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Cat News newsletter