CatSG

Cat News 78


APA and species working groups

Fig. 1. The APA cycle from the IUCN Species Strategic Plan: Assess: Understand and inform the world about the status and trends of biodiversity. Plan: Develop collaborative, inclusive and science-based conservation strategies, plans and policies. Act: Convene and mobilise conservation actions to improve the status of biodiversity.

The IUCN Species Strategic Plan works according to the Assess-Plan-Act APA-cycle (Fig. 1). While IUCN certainly has set the gold standard for the Assess component with the Red List and the newer Green Status of species assessments, and the Plan component is well covered through the Guidelines for Species Conservation Planning (IUCN SSC 2017) or the Cat Conservation Compendium (Breitenmoser et al. 2015), a volunteer network such as the Cat Specialist Group is not structured on the Act component. Although most of the Cat SG members are engaged in in situ conservation projects, the group per se is not an implementing body.

In order to facilitate the implementation of conservation plans and to assure that the findings from the Act element feed back to the Assess and Plan component, we have started to cooperate with bespoke working groups. Such affiliated groups act independently to the rest of the Cat Specialist Group, but sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cat SG to define the cooperation. One shared interest is the continuous monitoring of the conservation status of the focal species, but the cooperation can go beyond this. An example for this is the Persian Leopard Working Group PeLeWG, presently chaired by Igor Khorozyan and Mohammad Farhadinia. Many of the present members of the PeLeWG have already been involved in writing articles for a Special Issue on the Persian Leopard (Cat News SI 15, 2022). This group was then expanded to help develop the Range-Wide Strategy for the Conservation of the Persian Leopard under the CMS’s Central Asia Mammal Initiative CAMI. This was done over several online meetings, as the pandemic and the lack of funding prevented us from holding physical meetings. The Strategy was discussed with and endorsed by the Range States in a CMS-CAMI meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September 2022, and should now be endorsed through corresponding National Action Plans. All populations of the Persian leopard are transboundary, and hence international monitoring and cooperation is crucial to maintaining or re-establishing viable populations. Range-wide strategies can best be overseen by an assembly of respective national experts, and hence it was decided at the Tbilisi meeting to maintain the PeLeWG as a group that would assure the flow of information and support the national conservation agencies in the planning, implementing, and monitoring of local and national conservation activities. We believe that this is a good way to tighten the links between the elements of the APA cycle, as the PeLeWG will obviously be involved in any subsequent assessment and planning concerning the Persian leopard.

The PeLeWG presently has 41 members from all range countries of the subspecies. Other similar working groups range from 14 (the Guigña WG) to 153 members (the African Lion WG). As the number of affiliated groups continues to grow, we cannot invite all colleagues involved to become members of the Cat SG and the SSC, simply because administering such a group would exceed our capacity. However, working with affiliated groups is, in a way, an act of decentralisation, allowing us to expand our reach. We can offer the members of WGs the standardised IUCN approaches to Assess and Plan and respective training, and we can at least indirectly participate in the Act part and profit from the experience and local knowledge of the affiliated groups for improving the Red List and Green Status assessments.

Urs Breitenmoser

References and weblinks

Breitenmoser U., Lanz T., Vogt K. & Breitenmoser-Würsten Ch. 2015. How to save the cat - Cat Conservation Compendium, a practical guideline for strategic and project planning in cat conservation. Cat News Special Issue 9, 36 pp.
http://www.catsg.org/fileadmin/filesharing/3.Conservation_Center/3.3._Conservation_Planning/CN_SI_9_Cat_CC_web.pdf.

Cat News Special Issue 15, 2022: http://catsg.org/index.php?id=779.

http://catsg.org/index.php?id=779IUCN – SSC Species Conservation Planning Sub-Committee. (2017). Guidelines for Species Conservation Planning. Version 1.0. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. xiv + 114 pp. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2017-065.pdf.

Persian Leopard Working Group: https://www.facebook.com/people/Persian-Leopard-Working-Group/61552289070509/.

Range-Wide Strategy for the Conservation of the Persian Leopard: https://www.cms.int/sharks/sites/default/files/document/cms_pl-rs1_outcome_range-wide-strategy-endorsed_e.pdf.

Distribution of the elusive Endangered flat-headed cat in Brunei Darussalam, Borneo by B. B. Ang and J. K. Charles

Camera trap surveys and observational records of the flat-headed cat Prionailurus planiceps in Brunei Darussalam over 10 years (2009–2019) were obtained from Forest Reserves and Outside Forest Reserves. They have revealed that of 36 examined sites (19 within Forest Reserves, 17 outside), the flat-headed cat FHC was detected in 17 of them, with all these sites being aquatic habitats -peat swamps, forest streams, forest mosaic with swamps, salt licks and vicinity of lakes. Future surveys are recommended in localities that showed non-detection with a minimum of 2000 camera-trap nights but focused on aquatic habitats. The flat-headed cat was detected in 59 % of sites in Outside Forest Reserves as opposed to 37% in Forest Reserves, emphasising the importance of aquatic habitats in the former. Local community perception of endangered cats as obtained from interviews revealed their lack of knowledge of these cats and their inclination to have FHC as a pet which need to be addressed in conservation educational programmes. Ecological and human threats arising from anthropogenic activities that could affect the survival of flat-headed cats include forest fires in peat swamps and draining for residential development, agricultural runoffs, fragmentation of aquatic habitats, clearing of river bank vegetation that act as corridors, road kills and poaching for pet trade. Some of the ecological threats that are being mitigated include raising the water table in previously drained peat swamps and attempts at peat swamp restoration.

 

Supporting Online Material

Table T1-T3

First record of Asiatic golden cat in Phou Hin Poun National Protected Area, Lao PDR by P. Brakels and J. Souwideth

In this work we present the first confirmed record of the Asiatic golden cat Catopuma temminckii in Phou Hin Poun National Protected Area NPA (better known as Khammouane Limestone Key Biodiversity Area) in Khammouane Province, Lao PDR.

 

Supporting Online Material

Table T1

Hunting of clouded leopards in Mizoram India: a possible hotspot for illegal trade by A. K. Bal, S. Gouda and A. J. Giordano

Demand for clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa body parts including skins, bones, and teeth, through an illegal black market, appears to be high across Southeast Asia. Our report contains information representing the hunting of three clouded leopards, and the sale of their body parts, to be opportunistic but potentially easy sources of income for local communities. To contextualise further, we also report on the history and legacy of hunting in villages surrounding or bordering Murlen National Park in north-eastern India over the past several decades. With this part of India sharing a border with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, all of which have been identified as playing a key role in illegal wildlife trade routes, it is possible that trade in clouded leopard parts from India has been seriously underreported until now. We further suggest that potentially high levels of regional and local trade across porous borders amongst diverse tribal cultures and governments necessitate broader cooperation, and more effective mechanisms, for monitoring and addressing illegal wildlife trade in the region.


Supporting Online Material

Figures F1-F4

Distribution of the fishing cat in Chilika, a Ramsar site located in the Indian eastern coast by T. Adhya, P. Dey, S. Nanda, A. Nayak, S. Gowda and H. C. Chetan

Approximately 80% of the fishing cat’s Prionailurus viverrinus predicted global distribution overlaps with human modified landscapes. Here, we examine the presence of the fishing cat in four ecological sectors of Chilika lagoon, India, with varying hydrological regimes – freshwater dominated, brackishwater and saline – using interview surveys and camera traps. We found the Fishing Cat to be present in all sectors of Chilika but with significantly higher presence in its freshwater rich Northern sector which has a 115 sq km Phragmites dominated marshland. Presence was found to be poor in sections of Chilika where tall and dense riparian vegetation was absent and where conditions were most saline. We also discuss the conservation implications of our study.

 

Supporting Online Material

Tables T1 and T2

Leopard and wild boar sharing a rare meal in the Shiwalik foothills, Himalayas by J. J. Sehgal, D. Kumar, R. Kalsi and R. Singh

Understanding the interspecies interactions between predator and prey is important to assess the prey preferences, species coexistence, and abundance for creating conservation and management strategies. In India, many studies have been conducted to understand interspecific interactions between large carnivores and their prey. But to our knowledge, no study has recorded the interaction between leopard Panthera pardus and wild boar Sus scrofa feeding on a sambar Rusa unicolor kill of a leopard. We present the first photographic evidence of such interaction between predator (leopard) and prey (wild boar) feeding together on a carcass in the Shiwalik foothills of the Himalaya.

 

Supporting Online Material

Figure F1

Cats in the boulders: records of four cat species from Jawai, western India by R. K. Sharma, A. K. Jangid, P. Singh and T. Mohanraj

We report four sympatric cat species from the semiarid landscape of Jawai,
Rajasthan, in western India, namely the Asiatic wild cat Felis lybica ornata (Gray 1830), jungle cat Felis chaus (Schreber 1777), leopard Panthera pardus (Linnaeus 1758) and rusty-spotted cat Prionailurus rubiginosus (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1834). The species' presence was confirmed with direct sightings and photos captured by motion-sensor camera traps deployed between January 2017 to April 2017. This article contributes to a better understanding of the distribution of these species.

 

Supporting Online Material

Table T1

Categorisation of European wildcat records according to the SCALP scheme by P. Gerngross, M. Götz, U. Breitenmoser, A. Molinari-Jobin and L. Maronde

For large-scale, e.g. range-wide species assessments, a collation of records of various kinds such as direct observations, photographs, dead specimens, indirect signs or genetic samples is generally used. However, assessing reported records is not straightforward for elusive species such as the European wildcat Felis silvestris, which can furthermore be confused with the domestic cat Felis catus. Moreover, wildcat and domestic cat hybrids make the topic additionally complicated. In this article, we make a proposal on how to apply the so-called SCALP criteria for evaluating records, originally developed for the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx, to the European wildcat.


Supporting Online Material

SOM 1-3

Perspectives for Iberian lynx reintroduction in Aragon, Spain by J. Herrero and A. García-Serrano

Two new potential areas for Iberian lynx reintroduction were considered in Aragon, Spain. Human Dimension characteristics are considered apart from ecological ones. Interviews of local interest groups revealed a moderate positive view, with difference between areas and groups. An information campaign about the lynx and its coexistence with people should be developed, together with a better knowledge of possible conflicts with extensive shepherd farming. Locals should be involved in the initiative.

Wild cat species in flux: from tradition to trade in Ghanaian markets by M. Drouilly, R. Horion, K. Pryce-Fitchen, R. Pickles, G. Whittington-Jones, B. A. Boateng, A. Mahama, G. Mann and P. Henschel

The use of wildlife derivative products has been identified as an important aspect of the culture of African peoples. Integrated in traditional medicine, fetish, spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as in various culturo-religious ceremonies, it results in a thriving domestic and transnational consumer demand for different wild animals and their body parts, including those of wild cats. We explored the trade in wild cat products in 20 markets in ten towns and cities within the Republic of Ghana and found that 75% of the markets visited sold felid body parts. Full leopard skins and leopard and lion skin pieces were the most common wild cat products sold, although both species are fully protected locally under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Conservation Regulations of 1971 (LI 685). Skins, skulls, bones, teeth, tails, body fat, paws and claws were mostly used for cultural, religious and spiritual purposes, with traditional healers, (religious) chiefs, ordinary people and those working in dangerous jobs reported as consumers. Our results highlight the extensiveness and scale of the trade in wild cat products, which has so far not been recognised in Ghana, and remains poorly documented in many parts of West Africa. Our work can form the basis for future research. We emphasise the necessity to better regulate the sale of wild cat products and understand the typology of people engaging in the trade and those who do not. Assessing opportunities and feasibility for complementary and coordinated demand reduction initiatives such as behaviour change campaigns would also be crucial if we are to better protect wild cats in the region.


Supporting Online Material

Table T1

A phantom cat at last: first melanistic jaguar record in northern Central America by M. A. Martínez, N. Cabrera, E. Guzmán, G. Casco, I. Sánchez, H. D. Ávila-Palma, T. King, D. Thornton and F. Castañeda

We report the first camera-trap photographic record of a melanistic jaguar Panthera onca for northern Central America. Previous records had been reported from Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, and South America. Jaguars are extinct in El Salvador, and extensive camera trap surveys in Guatemala, Belize and Nicaragua have not documented melanistic jaguars. Between 2007 and 2023, a survey effort of 13,296 night/cameras yielded 20 individual spotted jaguars and one melanistic jaguar in Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve in eastern Honduras. This reserve is also home for other regionally threatened and endangered species such as the white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari, Baird’s tapir Tapirus bairdii and the giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla. Narco-trafficking operations have fueled a lack of environmental law enforcement in the area. The resulting deforestation, poaching, illegal cattle ranches and new roads in the area threaten this strategically important jaguar population.

Impacts of jaguar predation on nesting sea turtles at Tortuguero National Park by S. Arroyo-Arce and I. Thomson

We provide an update of jaguar predation trends on the four species of sea turtle that nest in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica, previously reported by our team for the period 2005–2013. The latest data provided here (period 2014–2022) allowed us to analyse predation rates over a larger temporal scale, and provide further evidence determining whether jaguars pose a threat to the survival of the sea turtle nesting populations at a local and regional level. Further, we described how our scientific data help to guide effective management actions to protect not only the four species of sea turtles but also the jaguar at a local level.

Participatory research and technological tools for global insights on the jaguarundi by M. Weston Flores, J. D. Ramírez-Fernández and A. Caso

We conducted a questionnaire using the Participatory Research PR approach on Google Forms to collect information and data on the jaguarundi Herpailurus yagouaroundi for the IUCN Red List Assessment RLA. We collected information on ecological and conservation aspects from 69 participants from 18 countries, covering most of the species’ range and gathering novel information. So, the method proved to be efficient in collecting the needed data for the RLA. Although this technique will be improved over time and with more experience, we encourage researchers dealing with similar situations to consider this method as an additional source to obtain data from species where scientific or published information is scarce.

 

Supporting Online Material

SOM 1 and SOM 2

Honour the indigenous names for cat species by E. Moqanaki and J. G. Sanderson