Emergency: Colocolo Conservation to the Rescue - Chile
by Carlos Castro
Globally, only five Mediterranean-type habitats exist. One is located in central Chile. Colocolo (Leopardus colocolo) is endemic to Chile's Mediterranean habitat. Consequently, the entire geographic range of Colocolo is the smallest of any wild cat in the Americas. This beautiful cat shares its habitat with the Güiña (Leopardus guigna), a species that has a wider distribution in Chile and a small portion of Argentina. Thus, our efforts to reduce threats to one of America's most threatened small wild cats also benefit Güiña and Puma as well.
In November, I received a call from the village of Chaihuin in the Los Ríos Region of Chile and the temperate Valdivian Forest, home to Güiñas but not Colocolo. Crisis had struck a group of villagers: Güiñas were stealing chickens in unprecedented numbers. Fortunately, a young man decided to take action by asking if we could help the villagers. The young man neither wanted the Güiñas killed, nor did he want elderly women in the village to be left without chickens. Colocolo Conservation Project team members and I, without hesitation, responded immediately.
The Colocolo Conservation Project responded immediately and sent three volunteers by car, traveled south over 1,000 kilometers, crossed the river by ferry, and drove south to reach Chaihuin. We were introduced to Elsi (above middle), who was saving her pesos to purchase new chickens since the Güiña had killed her entire flock. We talked to community members, delivered more than 20 hens to Elsi, and purchased all the materials necessary to repair her hen house. Thanks to the efforts of The Colocolo Conservation Project, Elsi is the first of many in the village who agreed not to kill Güiñas.
We promised to return to Chaihuin with more hens, deliver more materials so residents can repair their own hen houses (since no two hen houses on earth are the same), and install trail cameras adjacent to five houses to involve the entire community in the conservation of these Güiñas. As long as we can, the Colocolo Conservation Project will do everything possible to save Chile's small cats, no matter how far we must travel.
I wish to thank all our financial partners for making our conservation efforts possible.
Community Conservation Efforts for the Asiatic Golden Cat - Nepal
by Ganga Regmi
The Tinjure-Milke-Jaljale (TMJ) forest area in Eastern Nepal is an important habitat for the Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii). However, the golden cat has been facing serious threats due to poaching, forest fire and retaliatory killings by local goat farmers.
To tackle these challenges and to protect the golden cat, our partner Gyajo Lama Bhote partnered with local communities, specifically the "Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs)," who are responsible for managing and sustainably utilizing the forest resources. Gyajo's conservation efforts focused on addressing immediate threats, such as forest fires, poaching and conflicts between the Asiatic golden cat and local farmers. The TMJ forests are particularly vulnerable to fires, which are often caused by human negligence. These fires lead to the tragic loss of wildlife including golden cat each year.
To combat fires, Gyajo distributed fire control tools to forest users group, enabling them to safely extinguish fires and protect the habitat of the Asiatic golden cat and other species. In addition to fire prevention, members of the CFUGs engaged actively in patrolling the Asiatic golden cat's habitat. Their action has led to a significant reduction in poaching. While the forests once had dozens of freshly placed snares, only three old snares have been found and dismantled since the patrols began, showing the effectiveness of this initiative.
Another major challenge is the conflict between the Asiatic golden cats and local farmers, primarily due to the predation of goats. In response, in the next phase of his project he is supporting goat farmers to modify the traditional corrals into predator-proof corrals. Gyajo's project has been supported by Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and his project has also received the additional support from the 4 different zoos in the UK. Gyajo is a local 30 year old young man living in the backyard of Asiatic golden cat habitat in Nepal. The regular support from the generous donors encouraging such a local gem like Gyajo to protect the Asiatic golden cat and other sympatric small wild cats!
Trail Camera footage of Asiatic golden cat in its natural habitat in the project site:
Conserving the Small Wild Cats of Southern Buenos Aires Province - Argentina
by Estela Luengos Vidal, Marina Gomez, Maria Lina Rinaldi, Sabrina Martinez, and Mauro Lucherini
With this in mind, we joined the global #lentoporlafauna (drive slow for wildlife, in Spanish) campaign that aims to reduce roadkills of wild cats. We deployed four speed reduction signs and a large sign featuring Geoffroy's cat (Leopardus geoffroyi) in two areas: a highly-frequented road that crosses a protected area (Ernesto Tornquist Provincial Park) and a road near the city of Bahia Blanca, where several carnivores had been hit by cars recently. To increase the reach of this campaign, we also delivered #lentoporlafauna stickers for vehicles. Additionally, we presented talks to create awareness on the small cats that are found in the rural areas.. We discussed their conservation needs and attempted to make people understand that wild cats are not pets. Finally, we worked with local ranchers to create strategies to mitigate their conflicts with wild carnivores and prevent retaliatory killing.
The experience was very motivating and also made it clear that in addition to activities to improve local people perceptions and attitudes towards small cats, it is essential to address the conservation threats we identified if we are to enable coexistence.
We visited 17 rural and urban primary schools in southern Buenos Aires province, an area impacted by urban expansion and farming. We talked and played with 356 children and their teachers about local wildlife, especially small wild cats. Children typically only identified the Geoffroy's cat. Although rarely seen, the children described observing Geoffroy's cat on rural roads. They also knew that Geoffroy's cat preyed on poultry and lambs and, less frequently, kept as a pet. Thus, we talked and made different game activities concerning the threats that are affecting wild cats locally and what actions we can take together to protect Geoffroy's cat. Thanks to the generous support from Geoffroy's Cat Working Group, our team has redoubled its effort to conserve the three small wild cats that live in central Argentina: Geoffroy's cat, Pajeros, and Jaguarundi.
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