IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Lucherini, M.; Luengos Vidal, E.; Merino, M.J. | |
| How rare is the rare Andean cat? | |
| 2008 Mammalia (72): 95-101 | |
Although rareness is the main criterion used to list the Andean cat _Leopardus jacobita _as endangered, information on its population abundance is lacking. During 14 expeditions to north-western Argentina, we recorded the culpeo _Lycalopex culpaeus _at all sites where we interviewed local people, the Pampas cat _Leopardus colocolo _at 85.2% of sites and _Leopardus jacobita _at 66.7% of sites. Encounter rates for indirect signs of small cats and foxes were similar. DNA genotyping showed that only 4.9% of faecal samples from small cats were from _L. jacobita_. Camera trapping recorded culpeos in 85.7%, Pampas cats in 71.4%, and Andean cats in 42.9% of the areas. The mean capture rate for culpeos was more than twice that for Pampas cats and five-fold that for Andean cats. Direct signs of _L. culpaeus _were the most abundant, whereas those for _L. colocolo _and _L. jacobita _were similar. Culpeos are more widespread and abundant than small cats in the High Andes. Populations of _L. jacobita _are less homogeneously distributed than those of _L. colocolo_, but clear differences in abundance of sympatric populations were not detected. Our results support the need for conservation measures for _L. jacobita_, an endemic of the High Andes. |
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