Southeast Asia’s endangered flat-headed cat is rarely seen or photographed, and not a lot is known about it, making conservation planning difficult. Using eDNA and other new tools may help change that.
In December 2023, three staff members from the Iranian Cheetah Society crowded around a laptop, moved to tears by the sight of a mother cheetah and her four cubs, caught…
If you’ve ever thought of the caracal before, you’ve probably pictured it inhabiting the savannas of Africa, its long-fringed ears sticking up above the wild grasses. But although the caracal…
Asia’s water-loving fishing cat is one of the world’s better-known small wildcats, which has inspired the creation of a closely linked network of conservation groups — all intent on fishing cat and wetland conservation.
Sunda clouded leopards spend most of their lives in the leafy shade of the forest canopy. Equipped with exquisite camouflage, superb climbing skills and outsize canines, they’re formidable arboreal predators.…
In a quiet village called Charghikamala in Rajbari district, a sad story unfolded one night. Helal, a villager, heard his goat crying out in fear. When he went to check,…
Few researchers have ever seen this elusive wildcat and it is known primarily from a few camera trap photos. Which raises the question: How do you conserve an endangered species about which we know almost nothing?
In 2024, Latin America’s tiger cat, previously recognized as two species, was determined by scientists to be three species — a taxonomic reshuffling that has major conservation implications for these small cats.
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government remains undecided on how to manage tigers captured after attacking or killing humans, even as different stakeholders make varied suggestions on dealing with the urgent issue…
In October 2022, Paraguay hosted the ODESUR South American Games for the first time. The event proved a great success, and from the outset, people flocked to the games, largely…
LALITPUR, Nepal — As the gates to the vet clinic at the Central Zoo in Lalitpur opened, more than two dozen photojournalists thronged the facility and surrounded a metal cage…
For more than 200 million years, the ancient Valdivian Temperate Forest in southwestern Chile has been a refuge for plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. This global…
KATHMANDU — Think of big cats in Nepal, and the majestic tiger likely springs to mind, or maybe even the elusive snow leopard. But Nepal is also home to a…
KATHMANDU — A rich diversity of life abounds across Nepal, from iconic big cats like the tiger and the snow leopard, to less celebrated creatures like vultures and macaques. And…
Many people have never heard of the güiña, or the tigrillo, or the tirica. Unlike their higher-profile cousins, the jaguar and the puma, these elusive wildcats aren’t well-known. In fact,…
Over the past 50 years, lion numbers have decreased by three-quarters. Only 20,000 to 40,000 of these majestic big cats survive in the wild today. A third of lion deaths…
The sand cat is small, elusive and adapted to life in some of Earth’s most inhospitable deserts — that makes it hard to study and conserve, with lots of unknowns about its behaviors and populations across its range.
With their camouflaged coats, impossibly long tails, and extraordinary tree-climbing skills, clouded leopards are evolutionary marvels. They’re beautifully adapted to a feline life in the trees. But what evolution hadn’t…
With dwindling U.S. ocelot populations facing little hope for expansion, an innovative public-private alliance is gearing up to breed and reintroduce a new population. They’ll face uniquely Texan conservation challenges and opportunities.
Conservationists have for the first time adopted a crime analysis strategy developed for urban policing and applied it to assess the effectiveness of counterpoaching measures to protect the critically endangered…
The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is one of the most elusive cat species found in Nepal, with a conservation status categorized as vulnerable. The cat, called dhwase chituwa in Nepali…
KATHMANDU — “Predator-proof” livestock and animal husbandry practices can potentially lead to a win-win situation for livestock, humans and leopards living in the same landscape, a new study looking at…
Japan is home to two rare subspecies of leopard cat, one found only on Iriomote Island and the other on Tsushima Island. Neither larger than a housecat, each subspecies has…
KATHMANDU — Fishing cats are among the most elusive and understudied small cats in the world. They’re also among the most threatened, faced with habitat loss, conflict with humans, and…
On Saturday, July 29, the world celebrated International Tiger Day with good news from my home country of Bhutan, a small Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between India and China. Bhutan’s latest…
Experts on wildlife crime in Suriname monitored and documented two of the most powerful jaguar trafficking networks in South America. The networks, called “SA1” and “SA18,” operate in Suriname and…
Big cat conflict is a threat to charismatic species like tigers and leopards. Small cat conflict, though often less severe, can also harm the livelihoods of communities and farmers and…
KATHMANDU — When India announced the results of its national tiger census in April this year, it added a new habitat for the big cats: the Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar…
Lions are returning on their own to parks in Mozambique and Chad thanks to the creation of vast landscape mosaics that include core protected areas, corridors and cooperating communities through which the big cats roam.
Years of law enforcement to tackle rampant snaring and poaching have failed to halt the loss of Cambodia’s last remaining Indochinese leopard population, according to a recent study. The researchers…
Interbreeding with domestic cats, and also with other wildcat species, is altering the behaviors and genetic profiles of some small wildcats, creating conservation dilemmas about how best to define and protect these species.
Every night, somewhere unseen across the vast, semidesert and dry savanna habitat of Southern Africa, the continent’s deadliest cat emerges to hunt. Black-footed cats (Felis nigripes) are ideally suited for…
