Spatial ecology of andean cats: maps as tools for transfrontier conservation

MARINO J.; BENNET M.; IRIARTE A.; LUCHERINI M.; NAPOLITANO C.; PEROVIC. P.; REPPUCCI JUAN IGNACIO; SILLERO-ZUBIRI C.; VILLALBA L.; VISCARRA M.

Port Elizabeth, Sud Africa

Congreso; 21st Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology; 2007

Society for Conservation Biology

The spatial ecology of species with restricted distribution and/or highly specialized habits can inform conservation actions, even when details of the ecology and behaviour of populations are largely unknown. The Andean cat (Oreailurus jacobita), a High Andes endemic, is a suitable model species for the application of concepts of spatial ecology to the conservation of rare populations. In a transfrontier collaboration, we constructed a predictive map of the distribution of habitats with varying degree of suitability for Andean cats around the triple frontier between Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. Our map aimed at representing the environmental factors that seem to impose a limit to the distribution of this rare cat, namely the high altitude rodents they depend on (chiefly Lagidium viscacha) and the presence of rocky outcrops with suitable shelter. Our proxy variables were: vegetation types (particularly ‘vegas’, small marshes that concentrate most of the productivity in an otherwise barren landscape), altitude and slope. In this way we predicted the potential spatial structure of Andean cat populations across boundaries, their connectivity and location of hotspots for conservation. We used a set of Andean cat distribution data to test the validity of our predictions and offer recommendations for coordinated range-wide research and conservation.