IN THIS ISSUE Jaguars in the Pantanal
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Vol. 2, Issue 2. Sept. 2006. Wild Cat TheNews Cougar Network’s tri-annual publication dedicated to the scientific research of North American wild cats IN THIS ISSUE Jaguars in the Pantanal Andean Mountain Cats Project Wild Cats of Brazil Potential Midwest Cougar Habitat Research Update Chemical Capture of Free-Ranging Felids Puma Research - Now that you have it, what do you do with it? © 2006 The Cougar Network: Using Science to Understand Cougar Ecology. Cover Photograph © Wild Cats of Brazil Project. Wild Cat News © 2006 The Cougar Network: Using Science to Understand Cougar Ecology IN THIS ISSUE Vol. 2, Issue 2. September 2006. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jaguars in the Pantanal of Brazil By Peter G. Crawshaw Jr., Biologist contact. Fião shined his torch, his head almost to the ground. One Brazilian Institute for the and partly hidden in the entangled moment he was there, omnipresent, Environment (IBAMA) vegetation, we saw an adult male and in the next, he was gone. We Clay Nielsen • IL jaguar (below). The animal avoided heard nothing more. Only then, it Amidst the myriads of sounds eye contact with the light, lowering seemed, we all resumed breathing. It under the big night sky of the Male jaguar, Pantanal National Park, 20 February 2006 Pantanal, we strained our ears to (José Luiz Menezes/Peter Crawshaw Jr.). identify anything that would denounce the presence of the jaguar on the river bank, just 10 meters from our Harley Shaw • NM boat. After the first distant replies to the hoarse, repeated grunts that Fião, a park employee, produced with an oversized, hollow gourd, the animal had remained silent. Some of us were already skeptical that he would come to investigate the potential invasion of Ken Miller • MA its haunts by an unknown jaguar. All of a sudden, an unlikely sound came Jaguars in the Pantanal from the bank like a low, harsh miaow that Fião and I identified as a close- range vocalization, an appeasement Wild Cat News - www.cougarnet.org 3 By Peter G. Crawshaw Jr., Biologist Mark Dowling • CT 3 Bob Wilson • KS _______ Sacred Cat SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS of the Andes Chuck Anderson • WY Above: A female Andean mountain cat peers from a small cave at the edge of a precipice in Khastor Bolivia. Photograph by Jim Sanderson. By Jim Sanderson, Ph.D. attending a recent meeting of Alianza those at the AGA meeting, Isabella’s Adrian P. Wydeven • WI Conservation International Gato Andino (AGA), an organization commitment to wildlife conservation Wildlife Conservation Network dedicated to conservation efforts of and love of Andean cats came as no Small Cat Conservation Alliance the Andean cat (Oreailurus jacobita) surprise. IUCN Cat Specialist Group throughout its geographic range in The Andean cat is the least-known And Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Perú. cat in the western hemisphere. Gato Lilian Villalba, M.Sc. The international model and movie andino is also one of only four cats Alianza Gato Andino star, Isabella Rossellini, daughter of considered Endangered by the IUCN Bill Watkins • MB Coleccion Boliviana de Fauna screen legend Ingrid Bergmann, had Cat Specialist Group, making it the IUCN Cat Specialist Group donated to AGA half of her $100,000 Americas’ most threatened cat species. Andean Mountain Cats Disney Wildlife Conservation Award Three Asian species – bay cat, snow With exquisite timing, the exciting she had received for her tireless leopard, and tiger - share this dubious news reached those in La Paz, Bolivia, efforts to protect wildlife. To all of distinction. Wild Cat News - www.cougarnet.org 7 By Jim Sanderson, Ph.D., and Lillian Villalba, M.Sc. Ron Andrews • IA 7 Darrell Land • FL Dave Hamilton • MO Jay Tischendorf • MT _______ The Quest for little-known Cats of the Americas: Project Wild Cats EDITOR Above: The little spotted cat is a native to Brazil. of Brazil Photograph © Wild Cats of Brazil Project. By Tadeu G. de Oliveira, pardalis), margay (Leopardus wiedii), the best-studied species worldwide. Biologist, Maranhão State little spotted cat (Leopardus tigrinus), However, in the Neotropical realm, University - UEMA and Geoffroy’s cat (Leopardus geoffroyi), felids are among the least known Institute Pro-Carnivoros kodkod (Leopardus guigna), pampas in the world, with very limited cat (Leopardus colocolo), Andean cat information available regarding their The American continent houses (Leopardus jacobitus), jaguarundi ecology and conservation needs. This 12 species of wild felids, of which (Puma yagouaroundi), puma (Puma holds true even for Neotropical puma. only three are commonly found in concolor), and jaguar (Panthera All species “south of the border” North America. Tropical America, onca). Only the puma is characteristic are under a series of threats and are which comprises the zoogeographical of both areas, and except for the considered threatened with extinction province of the Neotropics (coastal kodkod and Andean cat, all are found in varying degrees in several parts Scott Wilson and tropical lowland areas of Mexico in Brazil. of their range. In Brazil, all are all the way down to the Straight of Needless to say, studies on North threatened either nationally (most Project Wild Cats of Brazil Magellan in southernmost Chile and American felids (puma, bobcat – Lynx species) or at the state level. Argentina), on the other hand, harbors rufus – and Canada lynx – Lynx In 2003, Brazil’s Ministry of the 10. These are: ocelot (Leopardus canadensis) make them some of Environment, through the National Wild Cat12 News - www.cougarnet.org 12 By Tandeu G. de Oliveira, Biologist Status Update: Modeling Potential Cougarin Midwestern Habitat North America Above: Trailcam photo taken near Savage, Minnesota. Courtesy Kerry Kammann. By Michelle A. LaRue the past 15 years, suggesting eastward presence in the Midwest, currently Graduate Research Assistant, and movement of cougars. Recent no information is available to assist Dr. Clayton K. Nielsen research has found that cougars can such efforts. To concentrate on these Wildlife Ecologist disperse considerable distances, needs, as reported in the June 2005 Cooperative Wildlife Research as evidenced by a juvenile male issue of the Wild Cat News, efforts Laboratory dispersing 1,067 km into Oklahoma are currently being undertaken to Southern Illinois University from the Black Hills and a juvenile provide the first model of cougar Carbondale (MAL, CKN); female dispersing 1,336 km within habitat in the Midwest by using expert Cougar Network (CKN) western cougar range. Given the opinion surveys, geospatial data, and a increasing number of confirmations geographic information system (GIS). Cougars are becoming a species and their long-distance dispersal This article provides a status update of interest to Midwestern wildlife capability, it is possible that cougars on the model’s progress. biologists and the general public are attempting to re-colonize the because of their increasing presence Midwest via juvenile dispersal. Approach to Modeling Potential in the region. As confirmed by the Although wildlife biologists Cougar Habitat Potential Midwest Cougar Habitat Update Cougar Network, cougar carcasses, will require information to support scat, and tracks in Midwestern states management, protection, and Habitat models have been created have increased dramatically during public education regarding cougar for many carnivore species using Wild Cat20 News - www.cougarnet.org 20 By Michelle A. LaRue, Graduate Research Assistant, and Dr. Clayton K. Nielson, Wildlife Ecologist Chemical Capture of Free-Ranging Felids Above: A mountain lion caught in a foothold trap and darted in the hip. By Terry J. Kreeger, DVM, Ph.D. cat needs to be weighed, measured, in town). Small to medium-sized Supervisor, Veterinary Services sexed, and marked with ear tags or cats are usually initially trapped Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. transponders. Blood samples are with foothold or box traps and often taken for health screening and then drugged. Larger cats, such as Wild cats come in all sizes, DNA analysis. Depending on the mountain lions, can be chased by dogs ranging from the diminutive rusty- research needs, radio collars may be and treed, then darted with drugs. spotted cat of Asia (1.5 kg) to the attached for tracking purposes. To Many of the large African cats are 300 kg Siberian tiger. Despite conduct all of these operations on an darted over bait or carcasses. Asian these differences, most cats are awake cat, well-armed with teeth, tigers are driven by elephants towards physiologically “wired” the same. claws, and attitude, is challenging at hidden persons with dart guns. This is fortunate when faced with best. When faced with this challenge, Siberian tigers are probably the only the task of chemically immobilizing people find that drugs are their friends cats routinely darted from helicopters. wild felids because it simplifies drug when it comes to handling cats! There are two major classes of choices and dosages. Other reasons for catching cats drugs used for the immobilization of Cats have to be caught for all are for translocation/reintroduction all wildlife: cyclohexanes and opioids. Chemical Capture of Free-Ranging Felids kinds of reasons. Most cat captures to establish new populations or to Opioids (often inappropriately called conducted by wildlife management remove them from places where they narcotics) are mostly chemical agencies are for research. Usually the shouldn’t be (e.g., the mountain lion modifications of the morphine Wild Cat23 News - www.cougarnet.org 23 By Terry J. Kreeger, DVM,