Taking care of our biodiversity: meet the most threatened cat in Peru

Just as the lion is representative of Africa and Asia, the jaguar and the puma are for America. Even for the first, great efforts have been made for its conservation in Latin America. However, of other species in the region –especially small and medium– very little is known. and about that Mongabay Latam will publish the special report “The small and forgotten cats of Latin America”, which will be available from tomorrow on the website of El Comercio.

Before continuing: why felines and not felines? The felines (family ‘Felidae’) are carnivorous mammals and are divided into two subfamilies: the panterines (‘Pantherinae’) and felines (‘Felinae’).

Within those subfamilies are genera. Cats are of the genus ‘Felis’while lions, jaguars, tigers and others are of the genus ‘panthera’. For example, the jaguar (‘panthera onca‘) is a felid of the subfamily Panterines and genus ‘Panthera’.

On alert

Going back to the Mongabay Latam report –to which I had early access– very little is known about other medium and small species typical of the region: . But not only that, but there are five species that have not been evaluated.

Why should we care? In the words of José Fernando González Maya, scientific director of the Soil and Water Conservation Project and co-chair of the Small Carnivores Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, “because, . However, the common problem of small cats, the object of this journalistic investigation, is the loss of habitat, although in each case they have particular threats.

big unknown

The journalistic report focuses specifically on the situation of the

He ‘leopardus jacobita’ It generally lives at 3,600 meters above sea level, in rocky areas with sparse vegetation. Its main prey is the vizcacha. .

It is designated to for the Andean cat. In the same way, although the hunting of the Andean cat for rituals has been declining, the killings of the animal continue with a superstitious nature. In addition, the cases of run overs of this cat continue to increase.

The absence of an updated record on the total number of Andean cats deepens the degradation of their natural ecosystem and makes their conservation very difficult.