Watch Wild Manul Kittens Playing in Mongolia

Manul kitten in Parken Zoo, Sweden

Written by Becky Ferreira

Contributor

August 16, 2016

 

Cute cat videos are widely known to be the foundational bedrock and unofficial currency of the internet. It takes an incredibly high rating on the adorability index for one to distinguish itself as a true classic, worthy of enshrinement in the annals of online feline fame.

Well, hold onto your butts, because the Siberian Times just posted footage of some manul kittens playing around in Mongolia. Captured by Bariushaa Munkhtsog, a wildlife biologist based at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the video is a rare window into the world of this elusive wild cat, also known as the Pallas’s cat, which is native to the steppes of central Eurasia.

 

Manul kittens in Mongolia. Video: Siberian Times/YouTube

With their puffy coats, stumpy legs, and flattened face, manul kittens look like ready-made Pixar characters. Their ears are short and set widely apart, giving them an almost Ewok-like quality. In contrast to the vertical slit-shaped pupils of most other cats, theirs are round and expressive. Though they only grow to the size of domestic cats, their thick fur coats—the densest in the feline family—beef them up a bit, both in size and in evident cuddliness.

All of these adaptations add up to a predator superbly suited to its mountain and grassland habitat. Manul cats can’t run very fast on their adorably squat legs, but they are skilled at ambushing small animals such as pikas, gerbils, voles, marmots, partridges, beetles, and grasshoppers that share their high altitude habitat.

Indeed, Manul cats are so practiced at patiently watching and waiting for their prey that they can apparently sense when they are, in turn, under surveillance. The below footage beautifully captures the moment a manul cat validates its hunch that a camera trap had been placed in front of its den in Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, England.

The video proves that these cats are not only keen observers of their environment, but that they also have some impressive slapstick comedy chops.

 

This Manul cat is wise to our human tricks. Video: SCARCE WORLDWIDE/YouTube

 

Various species have been vaulted into online stardom in recent years, among them sloths, red pandas, and honey badgers. Given that it is essentially an ultra-expressive furball with a penchant for badass surprise attacks, the manul cat is no doubt poised to be next.

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Lions in West and Central Africa apparently unique

Date:

August 11, 2016

Source:

Leiden, Universiteit

Summary:

Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa, biologists have discovered.

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Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa. Biologists at Leiden University confirm this in an article published in Scientific Reports. Credit: © crazycolors / Fotolia

Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa. Biologists at Leiden University confirm this in an article published in Scientific Reports.

Genetic data

In this study, the researchers gathered a genetic dataset of lion populations covering a total of 22 countries. This included samples from each remaining lion population in West and Central Africa, a region where lions and other wildlife are rapidly declining as a consequence of the increasing human population. The researchers managed to gather all the information by teaming up with other people in the field and local conservationists.

300,000 years ago

Based on the genetic data, it was estimated that the split between the two major groups that can be identified in the lion must have occurred 300,000 years ago. To explain what happened in their evolution, the researchers made a reconstruction of African climatological history. It seems that periodic expansions of the rain forest and the desert drove lions into isolated pockets of suitable habitat, where the different genetic lineages originated that can still be observed today.

Other mammals

This influenced not only the patterns we observe in the lion, but also in other large mammals such as giraffe, buffalo, hartebeest, cheetah and spotted hyena. A general pattern is emerging that shows that many large African savannah mammals show very similar arrangements, with unique lineages in West and Central Africa.

Reason for concern

The strong declines in wildlife populations in large parts of West and Central Africa are therefore a reason for major concern. The fact that this region seems to harbour a lot of unique genetic lineages makes conservation in the area extremely important. A delegation from Leiden University will participate in the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September 2016, and will lead a Side Event that aims to establish a Species Action Plan for West and Central Africa. The researchers hope that this will facilitate coordination and funding of projects in the region.

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Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Leiden, Universiteit. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. L. D. Bertola, H. Jongbloed, K. J. van der Gaag, P. de Knijff, N. Yamaguchi, H. Hooghiemstra, H. Bauer, P. Henschel, P. A. White, C. A. Driscoll, T. Tende, U. Ottosson, Y. Saidu, K. Vrieling, H. H. de Iongh. Phylogeographic Patterns in Africa and High Resolution Delineation of Genetic Clades in the Lion (Panthera leo). Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 30807 DOI: 10.1038/srep30807

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Leiden, Universiteit. "Lions in West and Central Africa apparently unique." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 August 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811120559.htm>.

 

Arizona’s Rosemont Mine Threatens Only U.S. Jaguar by @Defenders of Wildlife

08 August 2016

Posted by: Rob Peters 

 

What happens when a Canadian mining company wants to dig a huge open-pit copper mine on U.S. public land, right where the only jaguar in the U.S. lives? The government agency charged with protecting the animal gives it the thumbs up.

Wait – what?

That’s right. Hudbay Minerals’ Rosemont mine (slated for the scenic Santa Rita Mountains in Arizona’s biologically rich Mountain Empire) is a step closer to breaking ground, thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The project encompasses a 9 ½ square mile open-pit mine, which would occupy up to 33% of the territory of the only known jaguar in the U.S., placing it and other endangered and threatened species at risk. Yet in its recent assessment of the project, FWS somehow concluded that the Rosemont Mine would not violate the Endangered Species Act (ESA). With that agency’s approval, the project is free to move forward to the next phase.

An Uncertain Future for El Jefe and our Hopes for U.S. Jaguars

This jaguar — named El Jefe, or Chief, by Arizonan school kids — has been repeatedly photographed during the last two years roaming the mountains where the mine is planned.
In a major understatement, FWS does acknowledge that the mine would likely “harass” El Jefe.

Under the ESA, harassment means any actions likely to injure wildlife by significantly disrupting behaviors like feeding or sheltering. It’s easy to see how Rosemont Mine will do just that. The mine would require massive earthmoving equipment, blasting, powerful lights around the clock, and millions of gallons of water siphoned from the area’s streams, ponds, and groundwater. Digging a giant hole in the middle of his territory would force El Jefe to move, which could be dangerous. Big cats often die in strange territory because it’s harder for them to find prey and to avoid people.

If the Service admits that the mine would force El Jefe out of his territory, how can it allow this project to move forward? Strangely enough, the agency simply doesn’t think that he is necessary. The Service’s position is that because there are jaguars in Mexico and Central and South America, El Jefe is superfluous. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

As the only jaguar living in the U.S., El Jefe represents a huge step forward for jaguar recovery in the U.S. Displacing him would be a massive setback, putting yet another roadblock in the way of someday having a healthy population of jaguars right here in the Southwest.

Rosemont Mine is a Critical Hit to Critical Habitat

Just two years ago, the Service determined what areas are “critical habitat” for jaguars — the lands that are essential to the conservation of that species, and that must be protected. The proposed site of the Rosemont Mine is part of that critical habitat, making it even harder to understand how the Service could approve such a project. According to the Service’s own assessment, the mine’s roads, lighting, noise, and other factors could harm as much as 78 square miles of jaguar critical habitat – far beyond the footprint of the mine itself.

The Service’s decision also gives the go ahead to harm other ESA-listed species by diminishing the water supply of those making their last stand in and near the Santa Rita Mountains. That list of creatures includes a number of southwestern icons, like the ocelot, native fishes, northern Sonoran garter snake, Chiricuahua leopard frog, western yellow-billed cuckoo and southwestern willow flycatcher. Studies done for the Service conclude that the mine’s water guzzling would lower the levels in nearby streams, and increase the number of days in which those streams go dry (an impact made even worse by climate change). Even after the mine closes and stops actively draining water from nearby sources, the water remaining in the pit would be poisonous because of acid and heavy metals. And as water evaporates from the pit, it will pull in more from the groundwater, continuing to steal water from local wildlife essentially forever.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Negotiates a Bad Deal for Wildlife

The Service rationalized its approval of this project by accepting the mining company’s offer to take certain measures to lessen the impacts it would have on wildlife. Measures like requiring its vehicles to drive slowly to avoid hitting jaguars or ocelots, or spending $1.25 million on enhancing and managing habitat. In all, the mining company plans to invest approximately $5 million in mitigating the impacts of its mine on wildlife — a drop in the bucket compared to projected after-tax income of $6.9 billion for the life of the mine. Yet this is what the Service agreed to, dropping a number of more effective (and more costly) actions the agency had initially proposed once it became clear the company would not agree to them.

What few mitigation measures survived into the final agreement are flawed. The mining company agreed to purchase and protect habitat on three ranches that together have roughly the same number of acres as the pit. But local conservationists who know these lands well say that the value of the replacement land comes nowhere near to matching what would be lost. Natural seeps and springs would be replaced by artificial ponds, for instance. And the mitigation lands would not replace loss of a major wildlife corridor likely used by jaguar and ocelot.

When done right, mitigation measures can be effective in helping to keep development projects from harming wildlife. But it’s clear that in this case, it simply isn’t being done right. The deal the Service struck with this mining company doesn’t benefit jaguars and other wildlife – it puts them in danger.

This deal may be good enough for the Service, but it isn’t for us. We are working with local groups like Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance to stop mining projects like this one throughout the Mountain Empire. With the support of these allies and concerned wildlife activists like you, we can keep fighting to ensure that El Jefe continues to roam Arizona’s breathtakingly beautiful Mountain Empire.

Rob Peters, Senior Representative, Southwest Office

As a jack-of-all trades in the Tucson Office, Rob collaborates with the Defenders Renewable Energy Group, helping evaluate and influence renewable energy policies and projects to ensure that renewable energy is developed wisely, with minimum harm to natural ecosystems. He also works on jaguar issues, helping plan for the eventual return of a viable population in the U.S., and he is the lead on Defenders efforts to safeguard Arizona’s Mountain Empire, a Defenders’ priority area surrounding the town of Patagonia. This area contains some of the last best native grasslands in the Southwest, along with important habitat for jaguar, Mexican spotted owl, and other endangered species. 

 

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World's Most Hardcore Cat Reappears After 10 Years

The blood-drinking badass has been eluding scientists

By Samantha Cole  

08.08.2016 

Clément Bardot via Wikimedia Commons

The Arabian sand cat looking cute but deadly.

Don't be fooled by the adorableness. This little dude drinks the blood of his enemies.

The Arabian sand cat, Felis margarita harrisoni, is a mysterious and under studied animal. Until recently, its habits in the wild were only anecdotal tales. We know that the subspecies is well-equipped for its North African, Arabian and Central Asian desert habitats with protective hairs on its ears and paws, and has adapted to arid climates by getting its hydration by eating smaller creatures. But it hadn't been seen for about a decade.

In March 2015, Shakeel Ahmed, an assistant scientist at Abu Dhabi's Environment Agency, set out to photograph the elusive sand cat. His team set up 5 camera traps with cat food over 278 nights between March and December, and ended up collecting data on three individual sand cats: Two female and one male. A majority of the photos were triggered in the pre-dawn hours, and during full moons. The findings were published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research.

The team hopes that these new insights into the sand cat's wild life will help the threatened species' conservation efforts. In the meantime, rock on, sand cat.

[H/T New Scientist]

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Cat scat: Research examines food habits of snow leopards

Date:

August 4, 2016

Source:

University of Delaware

Summary:

A new study finds researchers may have been missing the mark on the diet of endangered snow leopards. The findings suggest the leopards have been consuming larger, not smaller, species, and underscores the importance of verifying, through DNA testing, what endangered species need to survive.

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Snow leopard (stock image).

Credit: © oakdalecat / Fotolia

 

In order to create effective conservation programs to help protect and conserve populations of endangered snow leopards, whose estimated population is between 4,500-7,500 in the wild, University of Delaware researchers are studying their scat to try and understand what the large cats are eating.

While studying snow leopard scat is one of the least invasive ways to look at what the animals are eating and gauge their food preferences, according to a new UD study it may not always be the most accurate. Researchers found that past food-habit studies on snow leopards could have been biased by the inclusion of non-target species in fecal analysis, potentially misinforming managers about the prey requirements that allow snow leopard populations to succeed.

The research was led by Sarah Weiskopf, who recently received her master's degree from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and who did the work as part of her undergraduate senior thesis; Kyle McCarthy, assistant professor of wildlife ecology; and Shannon Kachel, a graduate student who works with McCarthy. The findings were published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin.

As a result of non-target species possibly being included in past research studies, it has been thought that snow leopards -- who lack an abundance of natural prey -- consume great numbers of small mammals such as marmots, hares and pika, as well as wild ungulates, which are larger hooved animals such as ibex.

While estimates of the amount of small mammals snow leopards consume may have been overstated, the importance of large ungulate populations to the snow leopard's diets may have been understated, as this study suggests stable snow leopard populations are possibly more reliant upon large ungulate prey than previously understood.

"We've got this concept of what snow leopard scat looks like and where it can be found, so we think we can go out and collect it. A lot of old studies on what snow leopards eat are based on just that, collections that people have done in the wild," said McCarthy. "When we started doing genetics on snow leopard feces to try and get at a different question, which was individual identification of snow leopards, we started realizing that a lot of what we picked up and thought was snow leopard scat was not."

Weiskopf explained that a big problem with collecting and identifying scat in the field is that researchers mostly rely on morphological characteristics such as shape, size or associated signs of snow leopards, and since scat from different species can look similar, this can lead to misrepresented population estimates and errors in reporting what the snow leopards are actually eating.

"This can affect conservation plans because if snow leopards are eating more large ungulates, we need to make sure we're maintaining those large ungulate populations. Otherwise, a population of snow leopards might not survive because there's not enough prey, or they may start eating more domestic livestock, which can cause problems with local human populations. That could result in people going out and killing snow leopards in retribution," said Weiskopf.

The researchers wanted to look at the problem in a blind fashion, comparing their data sets of what they believed to be snow leopards and what those supposed snow leopards ate with a data set of snow leopard scat that was confirmed through genetic analysis to be from actual snow leopards.

"That's what we consider the bias in our food habit studies and that was the ultimate goal of Sarah's project -- to find out how far off we may have been in the past with what snow leopards eat and then ultimately refining our understanding of what they eat," said McCarthy.

The researchers analyzed 199 suspected snow leopard scat samples collected from two study sites in Tajikistan during the summer of 2012 and 56 scats collected from two study sites in Kyrgyzstan between June and December of 2005.

Overall, only 36.1 percent of collected scats thought to be from snow leopards were confirmed as snow leopard. The snow leopard samples were most often confused with red fox scat, which comprised 39.6 percent of collected samples.

"We don't want to overstate our results because this was just one study, but we did notice that if we were using the blind approach, we definitely had a lot more small mammal occurrence in those scats.

When we used genetics to pre-screen the scat and find out which ones were actually snow leopard, there were many fewer small mammals in those scats," said McCarthy, who added that many of the small mammals consumed in the original blind data set were much more associated with red fox.

"It's a little bit of conjecture, but our thought is that a lot of food habit studies that have not been able to verify that their scat is actually from the species that they're studying probably do have this bias soaking in from other species," said McCarthy.

To determine what the snow leopards were actually eating, the researchers pulled hairs found in the samples and studied them on slides treated with nail polish.

"We looked at the whole hair under the microscope to see the medulla, which is the inner part of the hair. Then we pulled the hair off to look at the impression that was left in the nail polish to see the pattern on the outer part of the hair," said Weiskopf.

All hairs have a different scale pattern on them and the researchers could tell the individual species based on the scale pattern or the characteristics of the medulla.

The research was funded by a National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competative Research (EPSCoR) grant and the state of Delaware as well as the International Snow Leopard Trust, Kumtor Operating Company, Panthera Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Delaware. The original item was written by Adam Thomas. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sarah R. Weiskopf, Shannon M. Kachel, Kyle P. McCarthy. What are snow leopards really eating? Identifying bias in food-habit studies. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2016; 40 (2): 233 DOI: 10.1002/wsb.640

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University of Delaware. "Cat scat: Research examines food habits of snow leopards." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 August 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160804153137.htm>.

Guess what? Nobody knows how many snow leopards there are

July 25, 2016

Earlier this month, various media outlets reported that snow leopards ‘may be more common than thought’. The articles were quoting a recently published book (1) on these endangered cats, in which a group of authors make the claim that the snow leopard population could be much higher than prevailing estimates suggest. We wish this were the case. Unfortunately, there is no reliable scientific evidence for this claim, and it is misleading and potentially damaging to conservation efforts.

Snow leopards live across a vast and often inaccessible mountain territory. Some individual cats use home ranges that can be several hundred square kilometers large, while others are reported to use just a few dozen square kilometers. These factors make it extremely challenging to reliably count and monitor snow leopard populations. In fact, only about 1.5% of the total snow leopard range has been surveyed with reliable, internationally accepted methods such as intensive camera studies or genetic analysis of feces, and available population estimates vary accordingly. Currently, most experts assume a number between 3920 and 7500 – conscious of the fact that it’s essentially a guesstimate.

And yet, authors of this recent book chapter present new figures of up to 8,745 cats – and they claim that those numbers represent just ’44% of their range’; of course suggesting that the number across the total range may actually be significantly higher still. How is that possible, when a mere 1.5% of the total range surveyed has been surveyed using acceptable abundance estimation methods?
To arrive at these numbers, the authors have summed up regional estimates from various, in some cases unspecified sources – many of them dating back to an assessment that was done in 2008.

Most of these regional estimates are themselves not much more than educated guesses – as even the authors themselves say. For instance, ‘habitat quality’ is used as one of the indicators behind the estimate for Pakistan’s Central Karakoram area, while for certain parts of China, ‘questionnaires’ and ‘informed estimates’ provide the baseline data, according to the authors.

Other regional estimates are derived from so-called sign surveys – studies where researchers count snow leopard scat or other signs such as scrape marks within a relatively small area, and then extrapolate population numbers in a larger landscape from these findings.

Scrape marks can be a sign of snow leopard presence – but they don’t make a good basis for population estimates.

While these studies can be valuable to determine if a species uses a certain area, scientists have long agreed that they are not very useful to estimate population numbers. The Snow Leopard Network has, in fact, long rejected studies or proposals that try to estimate snow leopard abundance from their signs.

In contrast, only a very small fraction of the studies used to arrive at this new, significantly higher global estimate is based on scientifically sound methods such as camera trapping or genetic analysis of feces.

In short, just like previous numbers, these population figures are once again simply guesstimates – and there is nothing in them that would suggest they’d be any more accurate than the prevailing ones.

In fact, there is a possibility that the prevailing estimates may just as likely be too high. Recent, scientifically population surveys based on camera trapping and fecal genetics in Pakistan and Nepal, for instance, suggest that the actual snow leopard populations in these countries may be significantly lower than we thought. It would be premature to take these results as evidence of a much lower population overall, but they’re certainly cause for concern.

Recent data from Pakistan suggests that there may well be fewer snow leopards in the country than previously estimated.

What about the ’44% of the cats’ range’? By claiming that their population estimate of up to 8,745 snow leopards is for less than half of their global habitat, the authors imply that the real numbers may in fact be up to twice as high. This is highly misleading.

In fact, the area covered by the authors’ estimate is larger than all of the confirmed and probable snow leopard habitat combined – in other words, it contains all the areas we know or strongly suspect the cats occur in.

The remaining 56% of the range in their calculation represents what is referred to as ‘possible’ snow leopard habitat – areas that have all the ecological features the cats need, but haven’t been confirmed to actually have any snow leopards. Some of these areas almost certainly do, and others probably don’t. Even if the estimates for the 44% of the range the authors present were scientifically convincing (which they are not), it wouldn’t do to simply assume that these other, largely unexplored areas will all have roughly the same average snow leopard densities as some of the more well-studied habitats.

The snow leopard range, according to the GSLEP program. Less than 1.5% of the blue area has been surveyed for snow leopards with scientifically sound methods

We welcome any attempts to come up with a more accurate, scientifically valid estimate of the world’s snow leopard population – but they have to follow the standards and best practices of science. Otherwise, results can be misleading and even detrimental to the species, as they will lead to a sense of complacency and a weakened resolve to protect this endangered cat – while in reality its situation remains precarious.

Let’s not engage in numbers games, but instead make every effort to scale up research and conservation efforts for this endangered cat!
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(1) McCarthy, T., Mallon, D., Sanderson, E.W., Zahler, P. and Fisher, K.: Chapter 3: What is a Snow Leopard? Biogeography and Status Overview. In: Nyhuis, P.J., McCarthy, T., and Mallon, D. (Eds.): Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes. 1st Edition. Snow Leopards. Elsevier Press, 2016, p. 22-42.

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Wolves, big cats are running out of things to eat

Most of the world's largest carnivores are in decline. 

By Brooks Hays   |   Aug. 3, 2016

Poaching, hunting and habitat loss remain threats to the planet's largest predators, but new research shows the common threat is the global depletion of prey. Screenshot courtesy of Bryan Orford/YouTube

EUGENE, Ore., Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A new study has identified the driving force behind the worsening plight of large predators -- the loss of prey species around the world.

In 2014, researchers at Oregon State University found 24 of the planet's 31 largest carnivores -- including bears, cougars, dingoes, lions, lynxes, sea otters and wolves -- are in decline.

More recently, William J. Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State, set out to identify what factors were most predictive of predator decline. There were the usual suspects: hunting, poaching and habitat loss.

But Ripple and his research partners identified a simpler -- and perhaps a more obvious -- driving factor: the global depletion of prey. Scientists looked at the preferred prey species of the 17 largest land predators, and found most face shrinking menus.

"It's a simple concept but it just hasn't had the same level of emphasis," Ripple told National Geographic. "We found that just 7 percent of prey ranges overlapped with protected areas."

The latest evidence, detailed in the journal Royal Society Open Science, builds on previous findings that show larger predators are more vulnerable to prey declines than smaller ones.

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