Bringing the Cat Back!

Bringing the Cat Back!

Gulf Coast Jaguarundi (Puma Yagouaroundi Cacomitli)

By Logan Dosker

 http://ambergriscaye.com/critters/art/jaguarundi.jpg

Description and Ecology:

          Very similar to the Ocelot, the Jaguarundi is a small cat with a slender build and a small, flattened head. It also has short legs, a long neck and a long tail. Resembling more of a weasel than other felines, sometimes if it has dark fur, it can be mistaken for a black house cat. It has two color phases, where it can go from either black to brownish gray or reddish yellow to chestnut colored. Caso (2013) found that the Jaguarundi spends up to 40% of its time in tall, dense grass habitats, but prefers a habitat of natural undisturbed forest. 

           With home ranges commonly between 3.3 to 4.5 square miles, the diurnal Jaguarundi shares much of its territory with the primarily nocturnal Ocelot. A lowland species inhabiting forest and bush, the Jaguarundi eats mainly birds, small mammals, and reptiles. Able to reproduce at two years old, the females usually have 1 to 4 young in a litter and can have two litters in a year. There are 8 different subspecies of the Jaguarundi but going off the Fish and Wildlife Recovery plan, we are focusing right now on just the Cacomitili subspecies.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/495044184010911464/

Geographic and Population Changes:

            The Gulf Coast jaguarundi’s historical range is from the Lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas into the eastern portion of Mexico in the States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, and Veracruz (Nowak 1991, Oliveira 1998). Due to its habitation of purely Mexican land, there is very little information available regarding the Jaguarundi's population size. The last confirmed sighting of this subspecies within the U.S. was in April 1986, when a road-kill specimen was collected near Brownsville, Texas and positively identified as a jaguarundi. 

             Beyond that, no historical records of jaguarundis have been documented north of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, so there is not enough information to determine how abundant the subspecies was historically (USFWS 2012). despite the lack of information, it is reasonable to assume that the Jaguarundi's range and habitat availability has shrunk and is continuing to shrink. Jaguarundis have been photographed using remotely-triggered cameras in central and southern Tamaulipas as recently as 2012 (Tewes and Caso 2011).      

Geographic distribution of jaguarundi subspecies in Mexico (Arroyo 2007) 

Listing Date and Type of Listing:

Listed in US: Endangered - June 14, 1976
Listed in Mexico: Threatened - By Mexican Law
           Listed in the U.S. as endangered throughout its the range, the Jaguarundi is considered threatened in Mexico by the Mexican government. And despite various, unofficial reports of Jaguarundi sightings in Texas, the population is locally extinct in the US. There is hope that through cooperation with Mexico, we can maintain their Jaguarundi population and re-establish ours domestically.

Cause of Listing and Main Threats:

      The final rule (41 FR21062; June 14, 1976) that added the Gulf Coast subspecies of jaguarundi to the ESA’s List as an endangered species did not overtly specify the reasons for its endangerment. Some of the broader reasons for its listings included: habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation; over-utilization through incidental by-catch; and a general lack of regulatory policies protecting the animal's habitat.    
         Primary known threats to the Gulf Coast jaguarundi are habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation associated with agriculture and urbanization, and, to some extent, border security activities. Mortality from collisions with vehicles is also a threat. Competition with bobcats may be a potential limiting factor in the northern portion of the jaguarundi’s range (Sanchez-Cordero et al. 2008). And increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation resulting from climate change may also affect Gulf Coast jaguarundi populations through impacts on their habitat. 

Recovery Plan Description:

         The long-term goal of this revised recovery plan is to recover and delist the Gulf Coast jaguarundi, with downlisting from endangered to threatened status as an intermediate goal. 

          The strategy for reaching this goal is: 

•   Assessing, protecting, reconnecting, and restoring sufficient habitat to support viable populations of the Gulf Coast Jaguarundi in the US and Mexico.
•   Reducing the effects of human population growth and development on potential gulf coast jaguarundi habitat. 
• Gathering more information on the Cacomitli subspecies in Mexico and historical US species.
• Reducing the risk of road mortality.
• Investigating the relationship among bobcats, coyotes, ocelots and jaguarundis.
• Reintroduce the Gulf Coast jaguarundi in suitable habitat within the historical range in south Texas.

          The Gulf Coast Jaguarundi can be removed from the Threatened and Endangered Species List when: 

• We have sufficient scientific information on the Gulf Coast jaguarundi to show that 3 or more separate populations with a combined total of at least 500 individuals range-wide are stable or increasing for at least 20 years and there is sufficient interchange between those populations to maintain genetic variability (USFWS, 2013). 

http://www.arkive.org/jaguarundi/puma-yagouaroundi/image-G43814.html

References:

• Arroyo Rageb, E. V. A. 2007. Aspectos de la biología y distribución del jaguarundi (Herpailurus yaguarondi). Thesis. Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, México.
• Caso, A. 2013. Spatial differences and local avoidance of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) in northeast Mexico. PhD. dissertation, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, Texas.
• Johnson, W. E. and S. J. O’Brien. 1997. Phylogenetic Reconstruction of the Felidae Using 16S rRNA and NADH-5 Mitochondrial Genes. Journal of Molecular Evolution (44): Suppl 1: S98-S116.
• Nowak, R. M. 1991. Walker’s Mammals of the World – Volume II. Fifth Edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1629pp.
• Oliveira, T. G. de. 1998. Mammalian Species, No. 578, Herpailurus yagouaroundi. American Society of Mammalogists. pp. 1-6.
• Sanchez-Cordero, V., D. Stockwell, S. Sarkar, H. Liu, C. R. Stephens and J. Gimenez. 2008. Competitive interactions between felid species may limit the southern distribution of bobcats Lynx rufus. Ecography 31: 757-764.
• Tewes, M.E., and A. Caso. 2011. Management and Conservation of Wild Cats in Northeast Mexico. Publication Number 99 - Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. http://cnrit.tamu.edu/cgrm/whatzhot/saltillo/tewes.html (accessed 9/22/2011).
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2011a. Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Southwest Region, Albuquerque, NM. 274 pp.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2013. Gulf Coast jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi cacomitli) Recovery Plan, First Revision. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southwest Region. Albuquerque, NM