This is the first issue of the new Cat News. Not much has changed with regard to the appearance and the layout, but there are two major changes, indeed improvements, as we hope.

First, we will now have three issues per year, with a spring, summer and late fall publication. The number of manuscripts submitted has consistently increased over the past years, and we have been more and more fighting a backlog of printing the accepted contributions. Cat News is meant to publish short articles on new findings relevant to cat conservation, and especially colleagues less experienced to publish scientific articles in English are invited to submit papers. Nevertheless, all original contributions are peer reviewed. This implies, however, that some of the manuscripts need to go back and forth several times. To better support the preparation of manuscripts, we have therefore also updated the Guidelines to Authors for Cat News.

Second, Cat News comes with a number of new rubrics, also meant to reinforce the news character of the journal:

• News from the Red List of Threatened Species will highlight topical uploads and changes or new assessments, including the new Green Status of Species assessments of cats.
• News from the working groups presents short summaries of the activities of the Species Working Groups affiliated with the Cat Specialist Group (see also Editorial to Cat News 78, autumn 2023).
• Ex situ news is covering conservation breeding programmes relevant to in situ conservation of cats. Over the past years, the Cat SpecialistGroup has strengthened its ties with the zoo world – e.g. through cooperation with the EAZA Felid TAG – to help aligning breeding programmes such as the European Endangered Species Programmes EEP better with the conservation needs of the free-living cats.
• Through the lens will celebrate the beauty of wild cats, but also provide news from wildlife photography, including the use of automatic cameras. “Camera trapping” has, over the past years, become the most important tool to study elusive cats, and deserves more attention also from our side. We are grateful to have Malini Pittet as a competent editor of this section.
• Last but not least, Cats in the news features media releases on wild cats. This used to be an important part of Cat News in the times of Peter Jackson, and we want to take this up again. Roland Bürki, who handles this rubric, is happy to get hints to news from all parts of the globe.

Submitted articles, both Original Contributions and Short Communications, will not change – with the exception that we will insist more to observe the Guidelines when preparing the manuscript and hope to accelerate the process and publication of the papers.

It is no coincidence that the frontispiece of this first issue of the refreshed Cat News
shows an Arabian leopard and that the first articles of the rubrics News from the Red List of Threatened Species and Ex situ news feature the updated assessment and, respectively, the conservation breeding programme of Panthera pardus nimr. On the one hand, this Critically Endangered leopard subspecies (Fig. 1) deserves all of our attention, and on the other hand, we are most grateful to have the Royal Commission for AlUla as a new sponsor of Cat News. To produce, print and mail a third issue of Cat News per year would not be possible without this additional funding provided by the RCU!

We also hope that the new form of Cat News will be appealing to more readers. So, we invite all member of the Cat Specialist Group and all Friends of the Cat Group to advertise the new Cat News and to help us gaining new subscribers.

Urs Breitenmoser