Dr Claudio Sillero has been awarded a Darwin Initiative Grant for a new project - 'The Conservation of Puna's Andean cats across national borders' - to study and protect South America's rarest wild cat (and the second most endangered felid in the world) - the Andean cat (Oreailurus jacobita). Claudio and Dr Jorgelina Marino, also at WildCRU, will collaborate with the Andean Cat Alliance and local scientists. The project will focus on the Central Andes Puna around the triple frontier of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, a relatively undisturbed region where most recent sightings of this rare animal have taken place.

Copyright: Mauro Lucherini

The chief aim of this initiative, totalling £158,000 for three years, is to achieve biodiversity conservation by promoting collaboration across national boundaries, using the Andean cat as a flagship species. Field activities will be spearheaded by Dr Mauro Lucherini of Universidad Nacional del Sur in collaboration with colleagues in Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Salta (Argentina), Colección de Fauna de Bolivia, and Biodiversitas (Chile), and receives additional support from the Wildlife Conservation Network.

We seek to improve the efficiency of existing protected areas in securing long-term conservation of the Puna vertebrate biodiversity, and to encourage more appropriate resource practices outside them. The focus of this work will be to gather high quality data on vertebrate distribution, identify areas of key conservation value, train stakeholders, strengthen conservation networks, deliver community education to reduce pressure upon the Puna's fauna, and establish a mechanism for long-term monitoring of the cats and their prey.