February 2010 Newsletter - National Zoo

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Fishing Cat Field Studies in Thailand In the Autumn issue of Cat News, Passanan Cutter and Peter Cutter provide an update on the Thailand Fishing Cat Research and Conservation Project. Since 2003, the team has been surveying four areas in southern Thailand where the presence of fishing cats has been previously recorded. Sign surveys and camera trapping yielded no evidence of fishing cats in two of these areas, both inland wildlife sanctuaries. The other two coastal locations did yield both photos and signs of fishing cats. In particular, studies in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park eventually documented at least sixteen individuals as well as evidence of successful reproduction taking place. Prior to this study, there have been only three credible reports of fishing cats in Thailand in the last fifteen years. This study determined that fishing cats have been the target of hunting and poisoning in response to their habit of taking chickens. Additional indirect threats to fishing cats include habitat loss and its impact on prey populations. Much of the habitat of fishing cats has been converted for agricultural use, especially for rice and shrimp farming. One encouraging note is that the areas where fishing cats were located are areas of significant human use. Therefore their occurrence there demonstrate that fishing cats appear to be capable of persisting in areas of high human activity and impact. For more information visit the project website at www.fishingcatproject.info This project is supported by many AZA institutions holding fishing cats. 3
Meet a Member: Ken Lang, The Smithsonian’s National Zoo Conservation and Research Center Ken started working as a keeper at Brookfield Zoo “way back” in 1972. His interest in cats began when he was transferred to the Zoo‟s Small Mammal House with its wide variety of small cats. Another transfer to the Lion House provided Ken the opportunity to care for many species of large cats as well. In 1978 Ken gained his position at the National Zoo‟s Conservation and Research Center and started working with clouded leopards, becoming a self-professed “clouded leopard freak.” Under Ken‟s guidance, the CRC has produced over 70 clouded leopard cubs. In 2002 Ken went to Thailand with Rick Schwartz from the Nashville Zoo and helped found the Thailand Clouded Leopard Consortium. During the first two years of the project, Ken spent many months in Thailand overseeing its development. Since that project started, there have been over 40 births, with 6 of those cubs imported into the U.S. population. Ken has definitely made a significant contribution to clouded leopard conservation! Conservation Program Updates FISHING CAT SSP UPDATE Submitted by Dave Orndorff , Fishing Cat SSP Coordinator We are busy putting all the data together so we can do a master planning session at the Felid TAG meetings in April. If anyone hasn‟t yet completed their wants and needs survey, please do so as soon as possible. I will be getting back with those institutions that have not yet responded. Jessica Kinzer, our studbook keeper, is getting ready to submit the studbook to the PMC for data verification. News from the Field From Fishing Cat Biologist Namfon Cutter “Well, up to a week ago we captured and collared a large male fishing cat (13kgs) „Chogun.‟ He was stealing some domestic chickens and villagers were reporting the incidents. They were ready to capture and kill the cat but they were nice enough to ask us to capture it and remove it. However, one villager was really into conserving fishing cats and he is from the community and he helped us convince people to give the cat another chance. So, we collared him and released him back where we caught him. He is now being tracked. I have been busy working with the community. We have offered to help secure chicken houses for those who lost their chickens. So, much more funds will be needed. It will be much appreciated if you could give me some advice on how we can raise funds for that purpose. We also need more collars as we are expanding into the wetland areas inside the park. We still have a lot of work to do in the field and it would be great if we could get more help. It seems that the community work is the priority right now because we are trying to reduce the killing of fishing cats (in retaliation for taking livestock) and securing their day-time refuge patches because more of our cats are living on private lands and these lands get converted every year.” Namfon‟s team produced posters to display in the community and at a Wildlife Seminar held in Thailand a few weeks ago. These posters contain some of the most up to date information of their work. If you‟d like to see them, contact Dave Orndorrf at dorndorrf@mmzoo.org and he will send you PDF versions. 5
Page 1 and 2: Calendar 1 News 1-4 Conservation Pr
Page 3: Ten Lynx Kittens Found in Colorado
Page 7: Meet Our Cats By Barbara Palmer, Sa

February 2010 Newsletter - National Zoo

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