Untamed Magazine by cez raquion

BIG CATS ISSUE | JANUARY 2012

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION HELP BIG CAT INITIATIVE and learn how you can help to cause an uproar to save our icons of the wild — lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards

ISSN 0515-0810

778254

527004

www.untamedwild.com

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Self portrait

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

big cats issue cezir raquion

FOR A BRAND NEW YEAR that is coming we present our viewers with a broader look and understanding of the beauty of our animal kingdom, and to start with the very first issue of the year, we want to present to our viewers the ultimate predatorsof the plain fields across countires and continents: THE BIG CATS ISSUE 2012. Completing this magazine is a tremendous amount of effort through research, brainstorms, layout design, photography, printing, and other sources and services. I would like to present the people behind the completion of the magazine.

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Cezir - Ian Raquion DEPUTY EDITOR: Ivan Trujillo CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jackson Riker EXECUTIVE EDITORS: Jon Chester (Environment), Barry Ebner (Photography), Marty Chappell (Science) MANAGING EDITOR: Socorro Soberano

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR | BIG CATS ISSUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS BIG CATS

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR EDITOR’S PAGE

PATH OF THE JAGUAR OUT OF THE SHADOWS

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION KNOW THE BIG CATS HUNTING STRATEGIES LESSONS OF THE HUNT BUILT FOR THE KILL CAUSE AN UPROAR

TABLE OF CONTENT | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Photo by: Sheldon Cooper

EDITOR’S PAGE PHOTO EDITORS are the behind-the-scenes heroes of a photographer’s work. The editor sees every single frame and picks up on every mistake and missed opportunity. Then he or she uses everything at hand to correct, coach, and inspire. Ian R. Santos was the best of the best. He was not easy to please, but I trusted his judgment, even when his criticism was tough to hear. When he told me I’d made a memorable photograph, I trusted that too.

remembering ian r. santos cezir raquion

One of those memorable photographs was of a honeycreeper, a beautiful bird native to the forests of Hawaii. I’d spent five days on a tiny platform 30 feet off the ground waiting for that bird. I was cold and wet. The tree I sat in swayed alarmingly. The photo I finally made wasn’t good enough, Santos gently told me. He encouraged me to go back to do better, supporting my obsession to get it right. I repaid his support with a photograph of the bird that ran on September 1995 cover. Santos died a few months ago. He’d retired from the magazine in 1994 after 27 years of inspiring photographers. But his spirit can still be seen and felt. He was a role model for Kathy Moran, who photo edited this month’s story on the Great Barrier Reef. “I learned from Santos to be honest with photographers at all cost,” she says. “I learned that to edit a story you need to know the subject thoroughly. Santos always did his homework. He had a Ph.D. in every story he worked on.” Santos pushed photographers to think about how best to tell the story. He had an unshakable belief in excellence. These are lessons I have taken to heart. I would not be Editor in Chief of this magazine if I had not worked with him.

EDITOR’S PAGE | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

“If forward-looking specialists prevail, the wanderer will live on”.

WITHIN A FEW YEARS, though, the science of DNA fingerprinting—study genetic material to determine family and species relationships—revealed an amazing fact: The jaguar is the only large, wide-ranging carnivore in the world with no subspecies. Simply put, this means that for millennia jaguars have been mingling their genes throughout their entire range, so that individuals in northern Mexico are identical to those in southern Brazil. For that to be true, some of the cats must wander regularly and widely between populations.

Photo by: Tom Brakerfield

PATH OF THE JAGUAR Mel White

At dusk one evening, deep in a Costa Rican forest, a young male jaguar rises from his sleep, stretches, and silently but determinedly leaves forever the place where he was born.

CHAPTER | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

THERE’S SHELTER HERE, and plenty of brocket deer, peccaries, and agoutis for food. He has sensed, too, the presence of females with which he might mate. But there’s also a mature male jaguar that claims the forest—and the females. The older cat will tolerate no rivals. The breeze-blown scent of the young male’s mother, so comforting to him when he was a cub, no longer binds him to his home. But the wanderer has chosen the wrong direction. In just a few miles he reaches the edge of the forest; beyond lies a coffee plantation. Pushed by instinct and necessity, he keeps moving, staying in the trees along fences and streams. Soon, though, shelter consists only of scattered patches of shrubs and a

few trees, where he can find nothing to eat. He’s now in a land of cattle ranches, and one night his hunger and the smell of a newborn calf overcome his reluctance to cross open areas. Creeping close before a final rush, he instantly kills the calf with one snap of his powerful jaws. The next day the rancher finds the remains and the telltale tracks of a jaguar. He calls some of his neighbors and gathers a pack of dogs. The hunters find the young male, but they’re armed only with shotguns; anxious, they shoot from too great a distance. The jaguar’s massively thick skull protects him from death, but the pellets blind him in one eye and shatter his left foreleg.

Photo by: Tom Brakerfield (left and right)

Crippled now, unable to find his normal prey in the scrubby forest, let alone stalk and kill it, he’s driven by hunger to easier meals. He kills another calf on an adjacent ranch, and then a dog on the outskirts of a nearby town. This time, though, he lingers too long. Attracted by the dog’s howls, a group of villagers tree him and, though it takes many blasts, kill him. Jaguars, they say, are nothing but cattle killers, dog killers. They are vermin. They should be shot on sight, anytime, anywhere.This sad story has been played out thousands of times throughout the jaguar’s homeland, stretching from Mexico (and formerly the United States) to Argentina. In recent decades it’s happened with even greater frequency, as ranching, farming, and development have eaten up half the big cat’s prime habitat, and as humans have decimated its natural prey in many areas of the remaining forest in the world.

Alan Rabinowitz envisions a different ending to the story. He imagines that the young jaguar, when he leaves his birthplace, will pass unseen by humans through a near-continuous corridor of sheltering vegetation. Within a couple of days he’ll find a small tract of forest harboring enough prey for him to stop and rest a day or two before resuming his trek. Eventually he’ll reach a national park or wildlife preserve where he’ll find a home, room to roam, plenty of prey, females looking for a mate. Rabinowitz is the world’s leading jaguar expert, and he has begun to realize his dream of creating a vast network of interconnected corridors and refuges extending from the U.S.-Mexico border into South America. It is known as Paseo del Jaguar—Path of the Jaguar. Rabinowitz considers such a network the best hope for keeping this great New World cat from joining the lions and tigers on the endangered species list.

PATH OF THE JAGUAR | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

RABINOWITZ BEGAN HIS WORK with the Wildlife Conservation Society and now heads the Panthera Foundation, a conservation group dedicated to protecting the world’s 36 species of wild cats. The foundation’s current work represents a radical change in Rabinowitz’s conservation philosophy from just a decade ago. In the 1990s, having censused jaguars across their range, Rabinowitz and other specialists identified dozens of what they called jaguar conservation units (JCUs): large areas with perhaps 50 jaguars, where the local population was either stable or increasing. At the heart of most of the JCU were existing parks or other protected areas, which Rabinowitz hoped to expand and secure with surrounding buffer zones. “I felt that the best thing we could hope to do was to lock up these great populations in these fragmented areas,” he said.

Within a few years, though, the new science of DNA fingerprinting—studying genetic material to determine family and species relationships—revealed an amazing fact: The jaguar is the only large, wideranging carnivore in the world with no subspecies. Simply put, this means that for millennia jaguars have been mingling their genes throughout their entire range, so that individuals in northern Mexico are identical to those in southern Brazil. For that to be true, some of the cats must wander regularly and widely between populations. Rabinowitz and his colleagues went back to their data to see whether the preserves could still be linked with habitat adequate to support a traveling jaguar. “Low and behold,” Rabinowitz said, “while good jaguar habitat, where the cats can live and breed, has decreased by 50 percent since the 1900s, habitat a jaguar can use in travelling through has decreased only by 16 percent. Most of it is intact and contiguous. These places are like little oases— very small patches that jaguars will come to, use a while, and then leave. We were writing these places off because they’re not habitat where a permanent jaguar population can live. Now they’re turning out to be crucial.”

Photo by: Tom Brakerfield (left and top)

Jaguars have strong legs and paws used to climb up trees where they eat their food toprotect from other predators.

PATH OF THE JAGUAR | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

“What better unifying symbol can there be than the jaguar?”.

CHAPTER BIGTom CATS ISSUE Photo| by: Brakerfield

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Photo by: Tom Brakerfield (left and right)

Jaguar patrolling the jungle and eyeing on a single target.

RABINOWITZ HOPES TO CONVINCE national gov- Hadley said the project and its Mexican partners ernments throughout the jaguar’s range to maintain “fully support” Paseo del Jaguar. “If these magnifithis web of habitat through enlightened land-use cent animals are ever to reoccupy the appropriate planning, such as choosing noncritical areas for habitat north of the border,” she said, “the stepping major developments and road construction. “We’re stones in the jaguar corridor are essential.” Paseo not going to ask them to throw people off their land del Jaguar ranks with the world’s most ambitious or to make new national parks,” he said. The habitat conservation programs, and realizing it will take matrix could encompass woodlands used in for a many years. Rabinowitz is focusing first on Mexico variety of human activities from timber harvest to and Central America, where officials in all eight citrus plantations. Studies have shown that areas countries have approved the project. Costa Rica smaller than one and a half square miles can serve has already incorporated protection of the corridor as temporary, one- or two-day homes—stepping- into laws regulating development. stones—for wandering jaguars. While the habitat making up the proposed network is mostly intact Later he’ll tackle South America, where landscapes for now, prompt conservation action will be needed and political situations are more diverse and chalto protect it, especially in certain areas of Central lenging. Rabinowitz is encouraged, though, by his America and Colombia, where some jaguar travel audiences’ emotional response when he talks about paths already are critically tenuous. By studying jaguars—a response based on the animal’s enduring satellite photographs and airplane surveys, and aura of beauty, strength, and mystery. Indigenous walking sections of the proposed corridor to follow peoples around Mexico’s central plateau, and the up on reports from local people, Rabinowitz and Maya, farther south, incorporated the jaguar into his team can identify the segments most in need of their art and mythology. Today even mobile-phoneprotection. He then can go to government decision- carrying government ministers sitting in urban makers with hard scientific data, he said. “Our first offices feel what Rabinowitz calls “a powerful cul challenge is looking at corridors where there’s just tural thread binding them to their ancestors. Noa single tendril. We’ve got to lock up these areas.” body can say that the jaguar is not part of their own heritage,” he said. “What better unifying symbol Diana Hadley of the Arizona-based Northern Jaguar can there be than the jaguar?” Project works to protect the northernmost jaguar population in Mexico, with the longest term goal of seeing the species return to the United States.

PATH OF THE JAGUAR | BIG CATS ISSUE

“Like snow slipping off a ledge as it melts”

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Douglas H. Chadwick

When a snow leopard stalks prey among the mountain walls, it moves on broad paws with extra fur between the toes, softly, slowly, “like snow slipping off a ledge as it melts,” Raghu says. “You almost have to turn away for a minute to tell the animal is going anywhere. If it knocks a stone loose, it will reach out a foot to stop it from falling and making noise.” One might be moving right now, perfectly silent and perfectly tensed, maybe close by. But where? That’s always the question. That, and how many are left to see?

CHAPTER | BIGMcVay CATS ISSUE Photo by: Ryan

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

“Snow leopards are good at hiding, but sometimes they forget about their tail and they blow they’re cover”

RAGHUNANDAN SINGH CHUNDAWAT has watched snow leopards as often as anyone alive. The New Delhi biologist studied them closely for five years in Hemis High Altitude National Park in Ladakh, the largest, loftiest district of northern India, and carried out wildlife surveys in the region over nine additional years. We’re in the 1,300-square-mile park this evening, setting up camp in a deeply cleft canyon near 12,000 feet. It’s June, and the blue sheep have new lambs. We keep one eye on a group crossing a scree slope, the other eye on the cliffs at its top. Leopards are ambush hunters that like to attack from above. While the common leopard of Asia and Africa relies on branches and leaves for concealment, the snow leopard loses itself among steep jumbles of stone. This is exactly the kind of setting one would favor. But I’m not holding my breath. Raghu has sighted only a few dozen in his whole career.

Lengthening shadows coalesce into dusk. Wild roses perfume the Himalayan canyon as a passing squalls brush the ridgetops with new snow. I’m imagining a leopard easing down the darkened slopes. It flows low to the ground, with huge gold eyes and a coat the color of dappled moonlight on frost. The body stretches four feet from nose to rump. Its tail, the most striking in the feline family, is almost as long, and so thick and mobile it looks as if the cat is being followed by a fuzzy python. The snow leopard sometimes uses its tail to send signals during social encounters or to wrap partway around itself like scarf when bedded down in bitter weather. In Mongolia a park ranger once told me he’d seen snow leopards crouch and sway that plume in the air to lure curious marmots closer, just as hunters do with white rags. Possible. But I heard a simpler explanation from Sodnomdeleg Bazarhuyag, a retired doctor in a community of herders in northwestern Mongolia. We went to search out snow leopard sign in a gorge glistening with river ice. When a band of scimitarhorned wild goats (ibex) appeared on the skyline, Bazarhuyag scanned carefully around them, saying, “Snow leopards are good at hiding, but sometimes they forget about their tail and they blow they’re cover.”

Photo by: Ryan McVay

Snow leopards are great at hunting using stealth and the element of surprise.

OUT OF THE SHADOW | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Photo by: Ryan McVay

DARKNESS CLAIMS the last crags. Raghu and I won’t glimpse a snow leopard this day. The great cat is only living up to its reputation for being impossible to find. The carnivore scientists label Uncia uncia ranges across about a million square miles and portions of 12 nations. You’ll never hear one give away its whereabouts by roaring; it lacks the throat structure, though it can hiss, chuff, mew, growl, and wail. Besides being secretive, well camouflaged, and usually solitary, snow leopards are most active at night and in the twilight hours of dusk and dawn, amid the most formidable tumult of mountains on Earth: the Himalaya and Karakoram; the Plateau of Tibet and adjoining Kunlun; the Hindu Kush, Pamirs, and Tian Shan; the Altay, whose peaks define Mongolia’s border with China, Kazakhstan, and Russia; and the Sayan chain west of Lake Baikal.

Bound to high, cold, steep terrain, snow leopards have always remained at fairly low densities, but became still more sparse during the past century because thousands were turned into pelts for the fashion trade. Though officially protected since 1975 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the spotted cats continue to be killed for their coat, worth a black market fortune. Demand for their bones and penis, hyped as tonics in eastern Asia, is increasing. Conflicts with livestock keep growing too, which leads to more persecution by herders. Bait, snares, pitfall traps, and poisons make it far easier to kill a snow leopard than to see one alive. While these aren’t hard figures, the number may be less than half of what it was a century ago. Five of the countries in snow leopard range may have 200 or fewer.

“Snow leopards are good at hiding, but sometimes they forget about their tail and they blow they’re cover”

There’s no escaping the fact that most of the world’s big cats are in deep trouble, from the heavily poached tiger to the last 30 free-roaming Amur leopards. Snow leopards are no exception. But here’s some encouraging news: the rise of grassroots conservation efforts in a few locales to halt the snow leopard’s downward spiral. Several community-based program in India and Mongolia sounded especially promising— at least on paper. But how well do they really work? Saving an animal means getting to know it, and scientific information about the leopard is scarce. Perhaps no other large, popular land mammal has so many details of its natural history still missing. Raghu, the regional director of science and conservation for the nonprofit Snow Leopard Trust, knows as much as any one, and he has that sixth sense that researchers with years afield develop, an extra awareness that guides him to the fragile leg bones of an infant blue sheep here in a ravine, or an ibex skull lying there, high on a slope where wind whips the wildflowers into blurs of color, and lets him say things like: “At a fresh carcass, you can tell if a snow leopard with young made the kill. The ears will be gnawed off. Those are all the cubs can get at until she opens up the hide for them.” Tall and fit, with a long-legged stride, Raghu is a wizard at trailing faint paw prints across stony ground. But the otherwise ghostlike predators also leave behind a surprising amount of more obvious clues. It helps to picture 80- to 120-pound cats in a colossal litter box.

Droppings, together with scrapes made by the rear legs, reveal habitual routes that tend to follow ridgelines or the base of cliffs. Scrambling for footing day after day, I gradually realize that these travelers like to mark the same type of features that draw my attention en route: solitary boulders, sharp corners along gullies, knolls, and saddles. Near tree line, they stripe the occasional trunk with long, vertical claw marks. If my eyes are too busy taking in scenery to notice a fresh scrape, my nose will still register the acrid tang of leopard pee. Elsewhere, I’ll catch a musky aroma sprayed from anal glands up onto an overhanging rock. Frequently used scent posts take on an oily sheen. Passing cats stretch to rub their cheeks against them, leaving white hairs for me to tuck in a pocket for luck scaling the next rock face. Fifteen, sixteen thousand feet, no matter how far up I climb, some villager will have gone higher and left stone cairns bearing prayer flags or stacks of horns. Later, the cats come by and leave their own markings on these offerings. “A lot of research on snow leopard movements really tells you more about the limits of human abilities,” says Raghu after crossing a cascade swollen with glacial melt. “You can only climb so many slopes before you grow exhausted or encounter sheer cliffs. It is just not possible to keep up.” So Raghu tried capturing the cats to attach radios to them. He finally collared a female. But, like previous investigators, he was seldom able to monitor a signal for long before the animal dropped behind some of the ridges that blocked the transmission.

OUT OF THE SHADOW | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

“A lot of research on snow leopard movements really tells you more about the limits of human abilities”

CHAPTERPhoto | BIGby: CATS RyanISSUE McVay

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Photo by: Ryan McVay (left and middle), Illustration by: John Milano (top)

THE SNOW LEOPARD RESEARCHERS needed o gather more than cat facts, because you can neither understand them nor save a predator without doing the same for its prey. Snow leopards hunt chiefly Asia’s high-country array of hoofed wildlife: ibex, argali and urial sheep, blue sheep, tahr, the goat-antelopes known as gorals and serows, Tibetan antelope, Tibetan and goitered gazelles, musk deer, red deer, wild boars, wild asses, wild yaks, and wild Bactrian camels. Marmots, hares, and mouse hares (pikas) are on the menu too, along with partridges and turkey-size snow cocks. On top of everything else, snow leopards routinely add the tall, feathery shrub Myricaria and other plants to their diet. Curious, but then my house cat swallows grass and loves cantaloupe. As the top carnivore of the alpine and subalpine zones, the snow leopard strongly influences the numbers and whereabouts of hoofed herds over time. That in turn affects plant communities and thus shapes the niches of many a smaller organism down the food chain. The leopard’s presence—or absence—affects competing hunters and scavengers too, namely wolves, wild dogs, jackals, foxes, bears, and lynx. This cascade of consequences makes Uncia uncia a governing force in the ecosystem, what scientists term a keystone species.

During a several-day trek through the Sham area of the Ladakh Range, which rises to the north of the Zanskar Range, on the other side of the Indus River Valley, Jigmet Dadul, a conservationist, and I made our way over the passes to the barley fields and poplar groves of the village of Ang. There we looked up Sonam Namgil. Three nights before, a snow leopard had leaped atop his stout mud-brick outbuilding and then ten feet down through a ventilation hole onto the floor. When Namgil opened the door in the morning, he found wide golden eyes staring back amid the bodies of nine goat kids and a sheep where else,” said the 64-year-old herder in a ragged sheepskin coat, “but snow leopards are always around. They have killed one or two animals in the pastures many times. This was the first problem at my home. Everybody wanted to finish this leopard. ”The cats may claim only a small part of livestock herds, but the loss may be huge to the owner. Where losses mount, it’s often because human hunting has made natural prey scarce. Overgrazing by livestock also reduces the natural capacity of rangelands to support native herds. Hungry leopards turn to the tame flocks for food, and angry herders kill the cats in retaliation. With little or no government enforcement of wildlife regulations in remote areas, a protection strategy has little chance of breaking these cycles.

Do snow leopards attack humans, as bears sometimes do? No, never, Raghu says. He once watched a village girl pulling on one end of a dead goat, unaware that the other end, hidden by a bush, was snagged in a snow leopard’s jaws. She came away unscratched. But a single leopard swatfest in a herd of livestock can plunge a family into desperate poverty.

Photo by: Tom Kelley (left),

OUT OF THE SHADOW | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Religious leaders have recently spoken up on the leopards’ behalf. Within the mountain ringed courtyard of the Rangdum monastery, between the Zanskar Range and the main Himalaya, Tsering Tundup, a Buddhist monk, said, “Whenever we have an opportunity, we talk to people and encourage them not to kill any being.” Several people told me that the villagers listened when a lama farther up the valley condemned a spate of revenge shootings of snow leopards. Soon afterward, a new lotusshaped shrine was built with the herders’ guns cemented inside. The Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who is widely followed in Central Asia, has specifically urged followers to safeguard snow leopards and avoid wearing their pelts as part of traditional festive clothing. “People depend upon animals, but we must not use them for our luxury,” he told me during an interview in Washington. “Wild animals are the ornaments of our planet and have every right to exist peacefully. Some, including snow leopards, are quite rare and visible only at high altitudes. So we need to pay attention to protect them.”

The conservancy donates funds to cover livestock pens with stout wire mesh. Rodney Jackson, the pioneering snow leopard researcher who founded the conservancy, says, “We figure each project to predatorproof the corrals of a village this way saves an average of five leopards.” The organization also launches small-scale livestock insurance programs and provides seed money for parachute cafés—trailside tea shops beneath an army surplus parachute pitched like a big tent. Meanwhile, teams conduct environmental classes at village schools and train Homestays members as nature guides, available for hire. Homestays families pool 10 percent of their profits for community projects that conserve cultural values, such as renovating a monastery, or improve habitat for wildlife.

“Wild animals are the ornaments of our planet and have every right to exist peacefully.”

Photo by: Ryan McVay (left), Tom Kelley (right)

OUT OF THE SHADOW | BIG CATS ISSUE

“Wild lions, tigers and other big cats may face a slidae toward extinction within two decades”

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION Dan Vergano ICONS OF THE WILD — lions, tigers and other big cats — are fading from the world’s wild places, warn conservation experts worldwide. Their plight was overshadowed by last week’s release and subsequent killing of captive big cats, including Bengal tigers and African lions, from a private preserve in Zanesville, Ohio. Kin living in the wild have dramatically worsened: Wild lions, tigers and other big cats may face a slide toward extinction within two decades, say conservation scientists, who are urging to increase the efforts to save our icons of the wild, before we can talk about how the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Photo by: Anup Shah

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Photo by: Tom Kelley

Angry lion in the wilderness

“DO WE WANT TO LIVE in a world without lions in the wild?” says Duke University biologist Luke Dollar of the National Geographic-sponsored Big Cats Initiative (BCI), which seeks emergency conservation steps worldwide. “That is the choice we are facing.” The populations of lions, leopards, cheetahs and especially tigers have been decimated in the past half-century. Tigers have become so rare that lions have become their soup-bone substitutes, sought for Asian medicines and “tiger bone” wine, Dollar and other conservation scientists say. Top predators in Asia’s jungles and forests, and Africa’s savannahs, big cats do more than serve as national symbols. “Lions play a role in keeping migrations going, and keep populations in check,” says naturalist Dereck Joubert, co-founder of the Big Cats Initiative. “Big predators play a role in keeping prey species vital and alert.”

“Lions play a role in keeping migrations going, and keep populations in check”

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION | BIG CATS ISSUE

“Protect them, and you are protecting the habitat for everything else.” HOW TO HELP BIG CAT INITIATIVE BIOLOGISTS HAVE DOCUMENTED that removal of top predators from wild settings almost inevitably leads prey numbers to explode, says John Robinson of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based at the Bronx Zoo. “Ecologically, focusing on protecting top predators just makes sense,” Robinson says. “Protect them, and you are protecting the habitat for everything else.” Without top predators, booming prey populations soon strip vegetation and later collapse from illnesses and starvation. At Yellowstone National Park, elk devoured stream-protecting cottonwoods without wolves. Dolphins and sea cows wiped out sea grasses in Australia’s Shark Bay without tiger sharks to chase them into deeper waters. Sea urchins ate kelp forests off Alaska’s coast after sea otters numbers dropped in the 90s.

Over the past half-century, International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates show: •Lions are down to perhaps 25,000 in the African wild, where 450,000 formerly roamed. •Leopards are down to 50,000, from 750,000. •Cheetahs number about 12,000, down from 45,000. •Tigers number about 3,000 in the wild, down from 50,000 total. Only 1,200 breeding wild females exist.

In the long term, conservation experts would like to see “corridors” opened between African nature reserves to allow lions and other big cats to mingle, preserving their genetic diversity as a hedge against illness and congenital diseases. A similar “jaguar freeway” has been proposed for Central America. “The good news about big cats is that they are resilient and will breed to recovery, if allowed,” Robinson “The habitat doesn’t recover,” says photographer says. Snow leopards found in remote Central Asia, Beverly Joubert, Dereck’s wife and BCI co-founder. look to retain healthy population sizes for this rea“We’re left with just hyenas or their equivalent.” son, he says. “Captive big cats will breed but they’ve In Africa, as more herders develop lands that are lost the genetic characteristics suited to their home home to big cats, the animals are killed by poaching, environment,” he says. “It would be a huge loss for poisoning and livestock shrinking their ranges. the world for tigers and other cats to disappear from In Central and South America, farmers have been the wild. You can’t put a money figure on it; they are developed 39% of the original range of the jaguar, part of the world’s heritage.” according to the September Smithsonian magazine. “We are seeing the effects of 7 billion people on the planet,” Dereck Joubert says. “At present rates, we will lose the big cats in 10 to 15 years.”

Photo collection by: Thomas Northcut (all)

Cubs are the future of a pride and they have their mom teach them how to hunt.

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

KNOW THE BIG CATS Cez Raquion DISCOVER THE ‘BIG CATS’, the Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and Jaguar – discover their distribution, natural history and their plight as we enter the Twenty-first Century. Conservationists around the world are working to ensure that these magnificent creatures continue to survive – learn about the task ahead and how to help.

It is important to know and be enlightened about our worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s big cats as it is the key to understanding their nature and how we can help save them from extinction

Photo by: Thomas Northcut

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Fiercely protective of his pride, or family unit, male lions patrol a vast territory normally covering about 100 square miles.

AFRICAN LION LIONS ARE THE ONLY CATS that live in groups, which are called prides. Prides are family units that may include up to three males, a dozen or so females, and their young. All of a pride’s lionesses are related, and female cubs typically stay with the group as they age. Young males eventually leave and establish their own prides by taking over a group headed by another male. Only male lions boast manes, the impressive fringe of long hair that encircles their heads. Males defend the pride’s territory, which may include some 100 square miles (259 square kilometers) of grasslands, scrub, or open woodlands. These intimidating animals mark the area with urine, roar menacingly to warn intruders, and chase off animals that encroach and roam or hunt on their turf.

panthera leon

FAST FACTS

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: Head and body, 4.5 to 6.5 ft; Tail, 26.25 to 39.5 in Weight: 265 to 420 lbs Group name: Pride Protection status: Vulnerable

Female lions are the pride’s primary hunters. They often work together to prey upon antelopes, zebras, wildebeest, and other large animals of the open grasslands. Many of these animals are faster than lions, so teamwork pays off. After the hunt, the group effort often degenerates to squabbling over the sharing of the kill, with cubs at the bottom of the pecking order. Young lions do not help to hunt until they are about a year old. Lions will hunt alone if the opportunity presents itself, and they also steal kills from hyenas or wild dogs. Lions have been celebrated throughout history for their courage and strength. They once roamed most of Africa and parts of Asia and Europe. Today they are found only in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Photo by: Thomas Northcut (left), Tom Barkerfield (top)

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Mountain lions do not like to share their territory and they are constantly on the lookout for invaders and invaders.

MOUNTAIN LION

felis concolor

THIS POWERFUL PREDATOR roams the Americas, where it is also known as a puma, cougar, and catamount. This big cat of many names is also found in many habitats, from Florida swamps to Canadian forests. Mountain lions like to prey on deer, though they also eat smaller animals such as coyotes, porcupines, and raccoons. They usually hunt at night or during the gloaming hours of dawn and dusk. These cats employ a blend of stealth and power, stalking their prey until an opportunity arrives to pounce, then going for the back of the neck with a fatal bite. They will hide large carcasses and feed on them for several days.

Mountain lions require a lot of room—only a few cats can survive in a 30-square-mile (78-squarekilometer) range. They are solitary and shy animals, seldom seen by humans. While they do occasionally attack people—usually children or solitary adults— statistics show that, on average, there are only four attacks and one human fatality each year in all of the U.S. and Canada.

Mountain lions once roamed nearly all of the United States. They were prized by hunters and despised by farmers and ranchers who suffered livestock losses at their hands. Subsequently, by the dawn of the 20th century, mountain lions were eliminated from nearly all of their range in the Midwest and Eastern U.S.—though the endangered are being protected Florida panther survives.

FAST FACTS

Today, whitetail deer populations have rebounded over much of the mountain lion’s former range and a few animals have appeared in more eastern states such as Missouri and Arkansas. Some biologists believe that these big cats could eventually recolonize much of their Midwest and Eastern range—if humans allow them to do so. In most western U.S.

Photo by: Thomas Northcut (top and right)

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: Head and body, 3.25 to 5.25 ft; Tail, 23.5 to 33.5 in Weight: 136 lbs Protection status: Endangered

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Sharp eyesight and raw speed make the cheetah a formidable hunter.

Photo by: Thomas Northcut (left), Tom Kelley (right)

CHEETAH

acinonyx jubatus

THE CHEETAH is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fastest land mammal. With acceleration that would leave most automobiles in the dust, a cheetah can go from 0 to 60 miles an hour in only three seconds. These big cats are quite nimble at high speed and can make quick and sudden turns in pursuit of prey.

FAST FACTS Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: 10 to 12 years

Before unleashing their burst of speed, cheetahs use exceptionally keen eyesight to scan their grass land environment for signs of preyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially antelope and hares. This big cat is a daylight hunter that benefits from stealthy movement and a distinctive spotted coat that allows it to blend easily into high, dry grasses and bushes.

Size: 3.5 to 4.5 ft; Tail, 25.5 to 31.5 in Weight: 77 to 143 lbs (35 to 65 kg) Protection status: Vulnerable

When the moment is right a cheetah will sprint after its quarr y and attempt to knock it down. Such chases cost the hunter a tremendous amount of energy and are usually over in less than a minute. If successful, the cheetah will often drag its kill to a shady hiding place to protect it from opportunistic animals that sometimes steal a kill before the cheetah can eat. Cheetahs need only drink once every three to four days. Female cheetahs typically have a litter of three cubs and live with them for one and a half to two years. Young cubs spend their first year learning from their mother and practicing hunting techniques with playful games. Male cheetahs live alone or in small groups, often with their littermates.

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

panthera pardus

LEOPARDS ARE GRACEFUL AND POWERFUL big cats closely related to lions, tigers, and jaguars. They live in sub-Saharan Africa, northeast Africa, Central Asia, India, and China. However, many of their populations are endangered, especially outside of the scorching fields of Africa. The leopard is so strong and comfortable in trees that it often hauls its kills into the branches. By dragging the bodies of large animals aloft it hopes to keep them safe from scavengers such as hyenas. Leopards can also hunt from trees, where their spotted coats allow them to blend with the leaves until they spring with a deadly pounce. These nocturnal predators also stalk antelope, deer, and pigs by stealthy movements in the tall grass. When human settlements are present, leopards often attack dogs and, occasionally, people. Leopards are strong swimmers and very much at home in the water, where they sometimes eat fish or crabs. Female leopards can give birth at any time of the year. They usually have two grayish cubs with barely visible spots. The mother hides her cubs and moves them from one safe location to the next until they are old enough to begin playing and learning to hunt. Cubs live with their mothers for about two yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; otherwise, leopards are solitary animals. Most leopards are light colored with distinctive dark spots that are called rosettes, because they resemble the shape of a rose. Black leopards, which appear to be almost solid in color because their spots are hard to distinguish, that are commonly known as black panthers.

LEOPARD

FAST FACTS

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: Head and body, 4.25 to 6.25 ft; Tail, 3.5 to 4.5 ft Weight: 66 to 176 lbs Protection status: Near Threatened

Adept climbers, leopards will often drag their food into trees to protect it from scavengers. Photo by: Thomas Northcut

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

uncial uncial

SNOW LEOPARD

THESE RARE, BEAUTIFUL GRAY LEOPARDS live in the mountains of Central Asia. They are insulated by thick hair, and their wide, fur-covered feet act as natural snowshoes. Snow leopards have powerful legs and are tremendous leapers, able to jump as far as 50 feet (15 meters). They use their long tails for balance and as blankets to cover sensitive body parts against the severe mountain chill. Snow leopards prey upon the blue sheep (bharal) of Tibet and the Himalaya, as well as the mountain Ibex found over most of the rest of their range. Though these powerful predators can kill animals three times their weight, they also eat smaller fare, such as marmots, hares, and game birds.

FAST FACTS

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: 4 to 5 ft; Tail, 36 in Weight: 60 to 120 lbs Protection status: Endangered

One Indian snow leopard, protected and observed in a national park, is reported to have consumed five blue sheep, nine Tibetan woolly hares, twentyfive marmots, five domestic goats, one domestic sheep, and fifteen birds in a single year. As these numbers indicate, snow leopards sometimes have a taste for domestic animals, which has led to killings of the big cats by herders. These endangered cats appear to be in dramatic decline because of such killings, and due to poaching driven by illegal trades in pelts and in body parts used for traditional Chinese medicine. Vanishing habitat and the decline of the catsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; large mammal prey are also contributing factors for them to migrate and find a new place.

Photo by: Ryan McVacy

Native to the Central Asian mountains, snow leopard is a rare sight in the wild.

Snow leopards have powerful legs and are tremendous leapers, able to jump as far as 50 feet.

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

neofelis nebulosa

CLOUDED LEOPARD

THIS BEAUTIFUL ASIAN CAT, named for its spotted coat, is seldom seen in the wild, and its habits remain a bit mysterious. Clouded leopards roam the hunting grounds of Asia from the rain forests of Indonesia to the foothills of the Nepali Himalayas. Though little information is known about their population sizes, they are a vulnerable species.

FAST FACTS

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore

Size: Body, 2 to 3 ft; Tail, up to 3 ft Most cats are good climbers, but the tiny clouded leopard is near the top of its class. These big cats Weight: Up to 50 lbs can even hang upside down beneath large branches, using their large paws and sharp claws to secure Group name: Leap a good grip. Clouded leopards have short, powerful legs equipped with rotating rear ankles that allow Protection status: Vulnerable them to safely downclimb in a headfirst postureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; much like a common squirrel. Sharp eyesight helps them judge distances well, and the cats use their long tails to maintain balance. Though clouded leopards are great climbers, scientists believe that they do most of their hunting on the ground, feasting on deer, pigs, monkeys, and smaller fare such as squirrels or birds. They are aided in their hunting by the largest canine teeth (proportionate to body size) of any wild cat. Scientists are not sure exactly how the elusive clouded leopards act in the wild. They are probably solitary animals, like most cats. Females give birth to a litter of one to five cubs every year, and the young clouded leopards remain dependent upon their mother for about ten months. Photo by: Ryan McVacy

Somewhere between the small cats, which can purr, and the big cats, which can roar, are the elusive clouded leopards who are home to Southeast Asia.

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Tiger cubs remain with their mothers for two to three years before dispersing to find their own territory.

Photo by: Ryan McVay

BENGAL TIGER

tigris tigris

TIGERS ARE THE LARGEST members of the cat family and are renowned for their power & strength. There were eight tiger subspecies at one time, but three became extinct during the 20th century. Over the last 100 years, hunting and forest destruction have reduced tiger populations from hundreds of thousands of animals to perhaps fewer than 2,500. Tigers are hunted as trophies, and also for body parts that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. All five remaining tiger subspecies are endangered, and many protection programs are in place.

Females give birth to litters of two to six cubs, which they raise with little or no help from the male. Cubs cannot hunt until they are 18 months old and remain with their mothers for two to three years, when they disperse to find their own territory.

Bengal tigers live in India and are sometimes called Indian tigers. They are the most common tiger and number about half of all wild tigers. Over many centuries they have become an important part of Indian tradition, culture and lore.

FAST FACTS

Tigers live alone and aggressively scent-mark large territories to keep their rivals away. They are powerful nocturnal hunters that travel many miles to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals. Tigers use their distinctive coats as camouflage (no two have exactly the same stripes). They lie in wait and creep close enough to attack their victims with a quick spring and a fatal pounce. A hungry tiger can eat as much as 60 pounds (27 kilograms) in one night, though they usually eat less.

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: 8 to 10 years Size: Head and body, 5 to 6 ft (1.5 to 1.8 m); Tail, 2 to 3 ft (0.6 to 0.9 m) Weight: 240 to 500 lbs (109 to 227 kg) Protection status: Endangered

Despite their fearsome reputation, most tigers avoid humans; however, a few do become dangerous maneaters. These animals are often sick and unable to hunt normally, or live in an area where their traditional prey has vanished.

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

Conservation programs have been established to save and preserve the critically endangered tigers

SIBERIAN TIGER SIBERIAN TIGERS are the world’s largest cats. They live primarily in eastern Russia’s birch forests, though some exist in China and North Korea. There are an estimated 400 to 500 Siberian tigers living in the wild, and recent studies suggest that these numbers are stable. Though their northern climate is far harsher than those of other tigers, these ani mals have some advantages. Northern forests offer the lowest human density of any tiger habitat, and the most complete ecosystem. The vast woodlands also allow tigers far more room to roam, as Russia’s timber industry is currently less extensive than that of many other countries.

panthera tigris altaica

FAST FACTS

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: 10.75 ft Weight: 660 lbs Protection status: Endangered

Tigers are the largest of all wild cats, they are renowned for their power and strength. There were once eight tiger subspecies, but three became ex tinct during the 20th century. Over the last hundred years, hunting and forest destruction have reduced overall tiger populations from hundreds of thousands to perhaps 3,000 to 5,000. Tigers are hunted as trophies and also for body parts that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. All five remaining tiger subspecies are endangered, and many protection programs are in place. Poaching is a reduced—but still very significant—threat to Siberian tigers.

Photo by: Ryan McVay (left and top)

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

felis rufus

BOBCATS ARE ELUSIVE AND NOCTURNAL, so they are rarely spotted by humans. Although they are seldom seen, they roam throughout much of North America and adapt well to such diverse habitats as forests, swamps, deserts, and even suburban areas. Bobcats, sometimes called wildcats, are roughly twice as big as the average housecat. They have long legs, large paws, and tufted ears similar to those of their larger relative, the Canada lynx. Most bobcats are brown or brownish red with a white underbelly and short, black-tipped tail. The cat is named for its tail, which appears to be cut or â&#x20AC;&#x153;bobbed.â&#x20AC;?, thus coining the name Bobcat.

BOBCAT

FAST FACTS Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: 10 to 12 years Size: Head and body, 26 to 41 in; Tail, 4 to 7 in Weight: 11 to 30 lbs

Fierce hunters, bobcats can kill prey much bigger than themselves, but usually eat rabbits, birds, mice, squirrels, and other smaller game. The bobcat hunts by stealth, but delivers a deathblow with a leaping pounce that can cover 10 feet. Bobcats are solitary animals. Females choose a secluded den to raise a litter of one to six young kittens, which will remain with their mother for 9 to 12 months. During this time they will learn to hunt before setting out on their own. In some areas, bobcats are still trapped for their soft, spotted fur. North American populations are believed to be quite large, with perhaps as many as one million cats in the United States alone.

Photo by: Anup Shah (left), Tom Kelley (right)

Bobcats, named for their “bobbed” tails, have ears that resemble their feline cousin, the lynx.

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

LYNX

felis lynx

THE LYNX ARE SOLITARY CATS that haunts the remote northern forests of North America, Europe, and Asia. Lynx are covered with beautiful thick fur that keeps them warm during frigid winters. Their large paws are also furry and hit the ground with a spreading toe motion that makes them function as natural snowshoes.

Lynx mate in early spring or late winter. About two months later, females give birth to a litter of one to four young. Humans sometimes hunt lynx for their beautiful fur. One endangered population, the Iberian lynx, struggles to survive in the mountains of Spain, far from the cold northern forests.

These stealthy cats avoid humans and hunt at night, so they are rarely seen. There are several species of lynx. Few survive in Europe but those that do, like their Asian relatives, are typically larger than their North American counterpart, the Canada lynx. All lynx are skilled hunters that make use of great hearing (the tufts on their ears are a hearing aid) and eyesight so strong that a lynx can spot a mouse 250 feet (75 meters) away.

FAST FACTS

Canada lynx eat mice, squirrels, and birds, but prefer the snowshoe hare. The lynx are so dependent on this prey that their populations fluctuate with a periodic plunge in snowshoe hare numbers that occurs about every ten years. Bigger Eurasian lynx hunt deer and other larger prey.

Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: Head and body, 32 to 40 in;Tail, 4 to 8 in Weight: 22 to 44 lbs Protection status: Threatened

The lynx is known for the black tufts of fur on the tips of its ears, which function as hearing aids.

Photo by: Tom Kelley (left), Ryan McVay (right)

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE

UNTAMED | JANUARY 2012 | BIG CATS ISSUE

The ocelot has dappled fur that serves as camouflage in the jungles of South and Central America.

Photo by: Tom Kelley (left), Anup Shah (top right)

OCELOT

leopardus pardalis

TWICE THE SIZE OF THE AVERAGE HOUSE CAT, the ocelot is a sleek animal with a gorgeous dappled coat. These largely nocturnal cats use keen sight and hearing to hunt rabbits, rodents, iguanas, fish, and frogs. They also take to the trees and stalk monkeys or birds. Unlike many cats, they do not avoid water and can swim well. Like other cats, ocelots are adapted for eating meat. They have pointed fangs used to deliver a killing bite, and sharp back teeth that can tear food like scissors. Ocelots do not have teeth appropriate for chewing, so they tear their food to pieces and swallow it whole. Their raspy tongues can clean a bone of every last tasty morsel.

FAST FACTS Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Size: 28 to 35 in Weight: 24 to 35 lbs Protection status: Threatened

Many ocelots live under the leafy canopies of South American rain forests, but they also inhabit brushlands and can be found as far north as Texas. These cats can adapt to human habitats and are some times found in the vicinity of villages or other settlements. Ocelotsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fine fur has made them the target of countless hunters, and in many areas they are quite rare, including Texas, where they are endangered. Ocelots are protected in the United States and most other countries where they live. Female ocelots have litters of two or three darkly colored kittens. In northern locations females den in the autumn, while in tropical climes the breeding season may not be fixed.

KNOW THE BIG CATS | BIG CATS ISSUE