Argentina
Andean
Cat Alliance (Alianza Gato Andino)
(http://www.wildnet.org/andean_cat.htm)
The
Andean Cat Alliance, Alianza Gato Andino (AGA), works
to protect the Andean cat in all four range countries
(Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru). Conservationists
from these countries, as well as from the United States,
created the Alliance in 2004. Collaboratively, they
review current threats to the cat and coordinate their
conservation activities.
AGA's integrative
approach has yielded groundbreaking accomplishments,
including:
- first capture and radio-collaring
of an adult-female Andean cat
- first photographs of Andean
cats in Argentina
- use of camera trapping and
DNA analysis of feces to confirm the Andean cat's
presence in three additional departments in Peru and
one additional province in Argentina
- completion of cat diet studies
in Bolivia and Peru, yielding important
- information on prey abundance
and preferences
The Andean cat
is the most endangered cat species in the Americas.
It is also one of the most rare and least known felines
worldwide. In the last 25 years there have been fewer
than 10 documented sightings of this small carnivore,
which lives exclusively in the remote high-altitude
deserts of the Andes in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and
Peru. In addition to natural rarity and habitat loss,
the prime threat to the survival of the Andean cat is
direct persecution by humans. Some local residents kill
the Andean cat because they consider it dangerous to
humans and domestic animals, though it is only slightly
larger than domestic cats. Other local people use stuffed
cats and skins in traditional dances and religious ceremonies
and believe that killing a cat will bring good fortune.
