Cat Specialist Group member and CAT project leader Lilian Villalba and her team of two park guards (Eliseo Delgado and Juan Carlos Esquivel) recently captured the first images of the Endangered Andean Mountain Cat Oreailurus jacobita by camera trap. These rare photos - the first taken of this species by a remote-trigger camera - were taken May 1 2002 at 6:50 and 6:53 am near the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in Potosí province, Bolivia, at 4,660 meters elevation. Lilian and Nuria Bernal have mapped Andean mountain cat records from Bolivia, alongside the similar-appearing (but much more common) pampas cat Lynchailurus pajeros.

This Canon advertisement featuring the Endangered Andean Mountain Cat Oreailurus jacobita appeared in the February 2000 issue of National Geographic. The rare photo was taken in August 1999 by Jim Sanderson, whose project was supported by CAT. Since then, CAT has continued to support a network of projects aimed at determining the status and distribution of this poorly known small felid. Our newest project, made possible through a generous donation by Gibson Anderson, is a distribution survey for the Andean Mountain Cat in Peru. There is only a single scientific record of this species occurrence in Peru, dating from the late 1950s. Researchers Daniel Cossíos Meza and Analí Madrid Rivera are working through the high Andes in the south of the country to construct a definitive map of the cat's range in southern Peru (provinces of Ayacucho, Arequipa and Puno) and identify priority areas for conservation. Read their project proposal in MS Word. Read the Andean Mountain Cat species account from the Cat Action Plan.

Researchers from the Universidad Nacional del Sur, led by Dr. Mauro Lucherini, recently radio-collared the first kodkod (Oncifelis guigna) from Argentina. Recovered from anaesthesia, the adult female heads back into her territory in the Los Alerces National Park. The kodkod is one of the world's smallest and most threatened wild cat species. Click here to read their recent progress report to CAT and the Bosack and Kruger Foundation. Here is a previous project report from April 2001 (both MS Word).
NEW: Habitat photos from Los Alerces National Park:
•One of many Coihue trees (southern beech: Nothofagus dombeyi) climbed and investigated for cat scats
•Two views of the mountains around Lake Rivadavia 1 2

Tiger caught by camera trap in Cambodia's Mondulkiri region (April 2000). Photo courtesy the Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia Program. Please support CAT's Community-Based Cambodia Tiger Conservation Program, which has converted former tiger poachers into community wildlife rangers. This year we are working to improve law enforcement capacity by integrating local police into the program. New maps, media and program reports are now included on our updated website.

Tiger checks out camera trap in Cambodia's Mondulkiri region (March 2000). Photo courtesy the Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia Program, which has carried out joint surveys with CAT's Community-Based Cambodia Tiger Conservation Program. Our website is now updated with more information on the struggle to save the tiger in Cambodia, and how we are turning tiger hunters into community wildlife rangers.