Foto: Gato Guina / Maricela Núñez Montecinos
New wildcat monitoring program at Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park
Through a public-private collaboration between CONAF (Chilean National Forestry Service) and Rewilding Chile, 100 trap cameras will be installed in different locations in the national park, thanks to a donation by Panthera, an international NGO that promotes wildcat conservation around the world.
Aiming to gain more qualitative and quantitative knowledge on wildcats and their distribution range in the Patagonian ecosystem, a new collaboration program is underway at Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park.
Footage from the trap cameras and data analysis will provide new information about the population, distribution, and behavior of wildcats such as the Güiña (Leopardus guigna), local specie in the Leopardus family.
Monitoring also identifies threats and limiting factors for wildcats and gathers information about their interactions with other species such as pumas and other predators.
All the information gathered will be an essential resource in guiding the management and conservation plans of CONAF in the national park. Up to now, habitat fragmentation has left wildcats threatened, Driving conservation initiatives to learn more about their vulnerability is urgent. After this study, the donated cameras will be installed in Patagonia National Park to monitor and study wildcats in the Aysén region.