The Gulf Coast Jaguarundi

 The Gulf Coast Jaguarundi: Rare Works of Art

Puma yagouraoundi cacomitli

By Cole Cortella

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Coast_jaguarundi#mediaviewer/File:Herpailurus_yagouaroundi_cacomitli.jpg

The Gulf Coast Jaguarundi is a subspecies of the cats known as jaguarundis. These small cats are about the size of an average house cat, but longer. Think as if you and a friend had just pulled on little Fluffy to make her a bit longer. They can take on several colorations, including the orangish brown one pictured above. Also common is a grey to black variation. These colorations are so drastically different that scientists once actually thought they were different species, until they actually observed kittens of both colorations in the same litter!

The kittens in question (not in truth, but still dang cute!)
http://lotsofanimalscanada.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-spectacular-gulf-coast-jaguarundi.html

The gulf coast jaguarundi once ranged as far north as the Rio Grande river Valley and as far south as southern Mexico (to the state of Veracruz-Llave, to be more precise).

A map showing the historical range in Mexico of the gulf coast jaguarundi in red, along with the ranges of some other subspecies of jaguarundi. 

The current range of the jaguarundis has been drastically reduced. They have not been seen in the United States since 1986, when a roadkilled animal was found and positively identified by the Smithsonian. This is not for lack of looking, either. Camera traps (cameras that take a picture when something walks past them) and live traps (traps that catch animals but don't kill them) have been set out a LOT in refuges in southern Texas. The total amount of time these traps have been set out is 135,187 trap nights (1 trap for 1 night is one 1 trap night. Therefore, 2 traps for 1 night is 2 trap nights. They haven't been setting these traps for 370 years, don't worry!) In all this time, not a single jaguarundi has been seen or caught in any of these traps. Because of this, we have no idea either of the historic or current number of jaguarundis in the wild. 

They're probably just hiding
http://biodiversitywarriors.wikispaces.com/file/view/5044749947_765d70421a.jpg/397137924/377x253/5044749947_765d70421a.jpg

While the fact that they are hard to find is not enough evidence by itself to list these animals as endangered, there is definitely enough evidence, judging by the fact that the gulf coast jaguarundi was listed in 1976 as an endangered species. In Mexico, it is considered threatened, and Texas, endangered. 

So why is the jaguarundi listed? It's not for their fur: according to the Recovery Plan set forth by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, jaguarundis are not hunted for their fur, though they may be caught in some traps that are set out for other animals (though that's rather unlikely, judging by how they have never even been seen on a camera trap!) Nor is it because of any new disease that could be wiping them out, like White Nose Syndrome is currently wiping out North American bats. No, the main cause is mostly habitat destruction.

The ideal habitat for these jaguarundis is thick thorn scrub: think Wild West status, desert covered in short, thorny bushes. Unfortunately, it also turns out that this kind of habitat is great for farming and urban development. So great, in fact, that over 95% of it in the Rio Grande river valley has been converted away from its natural state. This, of course, leaves nothing behind for the poor little kitties. 

Thorn scrub habitat
https://www.desertmuseum.org/programs/images/TS_Coastal05.jpg

There are also other factors affecting the status of the jaguarundi. These include, but are not limited to, the fact that there is little to no protection for these animals in Mexico, competition with other small cats (bobcats, ocelots, and especially feral cats), border issues (you can't put a giant wall in the middle of the range of animal that can't fly and expect it to do well), hunting (farmers will often take out cats that they think are harming their livestock), and climate change. 

So what exactly is being done to help these animals? There is a Recovery Plan in place for these animals, but it's essentially starting from scratch. You can see this from the fact that the very first step in the plan is to learn how to find these animals! We barely have any idea of what kind of shape they're in, so Fish and Wildlife wants to first develop a technique to properly survey them. This could be very expensive. Following that, the next step is to restore their habitat. This could also be very expensive, in addition to being incredibly difficult. The Federal government doesn't actually have any jurisdiction over the vast majority of jaguarundi habitat, as it is mostly in Mexico. But if they do succeed, the next step is to reduce human effects on jaguarundis. This will also be difficult, as there are a lot of those. It may seem like it's all done once you get there, but there are more steps. We also need to make sure that once the jaguarundi population is restored to this point, it is viable in the long term. This is done by establishing ways to encourage landowners to also want to protect the habitat of jaguarundis, as well as establishing partnerships with commercial operations to ensure that they do not abuse the habitat that has just been created. After that, the jaguarundis should be in a good place, but we still need to continue monitoring them, in order to make sure that other things we didn't plan for aren't harming them. It's the same as why you go to your doctor after a surgery; they need to make sure they didn't screw up.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's estimate for the absolute earliest this could be done by is 2040. It could cost almost 20 million dollars. It is a lot of effort to protect these cats, to the point where you just need to ask: Is it worth it? In my opinion, it absolutely is, for a couple reasons. The first one is that they could have some effect on the environment that we don't yet know about. What if letting them die out causes a thousand other species to spiral out of control? We can't let anything die out without that being a possibility, and therefore we must protect everything. In addition, I believe a varied world to be a beautiful one. I have heard it said many times: "Nature is the first artist." I would never even think of removing a single star from Van Gogh's Starry Night, or a single hair from the Mona Lisa. So how could I possibly imagine taking a single piece away from the oldest and greatest work of art in existence? No, I will instead go to great length to protect it.