There are 40 recognized species of wild cats in the world.
Most people are familiar with the big and medium-sized wild cats, but few people know about the 33 smaller cats found in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation is leading the way in protecting small endangered cats.
There are 40 recognized species of wild cats in the world. Most people are familiar with the big and medium-sized cats, but few people could name the 33 smaller cats. Like their larger cousins, small cats are threatened by the loss of valuable habitat and prey, indiscriminate killing, and conflict with humans, livestock, and domestic animals.
Compared to other carnivores, very little is known about the small cats. With sparse information, it is difficult to obtain funding for conservation projects, provide protection for them, or establish conservation standards. Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation (SWCCF) is leading the way in protecting small endangered cats around the world.
Small cat species of the world:
South America: Andean cat, Geoffroy’s cat, Güiña, Jaguarundi, Margay, Ocelot, Oncilla (two species), and Pampas Cat.
Africa: African golden cat, African wildcat, Black-footed cat, Serval, Caracal, and Sand cat.
Asia: Asiatic golden cat, Asiatic wildcat, Bornean bay cat, Chinese mountain cat, Fishing cat, Flat-headed cat, Jungle cat, Javan Leopard cat, Leopard cat, Manul, Marbled cat, Clouded Leopord (two species), and Rusty-spotted cat.
Europe: European wildcat, Eurasian lynx, and Iberian lynx
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Small wild cats are not big cats writ small. Some small cats live in trees, some take readily to water to catch fish, while others make sandy deserts their home. None are easily seen and when sighted are never forgotten.
Dr. Jim Sanderson
Small cats face many of the same threats as big cats.
Jim Sanderson and the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation work with conservationists who are protecting species of small cats around the world. Learn how you can help protect small cats in this video by TV network HITN.
Dr. Jim Sanderson, Founder and Director
After a 20-year career as a top Los Alamos National Laboratory mathematician, Dr. Jim Sanderson left his job to study biology and ecology. He traveled to Chile to study an endangered cat called the guigna, and soon he was tracking elusive small cat species around the world.
He has become one of the world’s foremost experts on small wild felines and founded Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation (originally named Small Cat Conservation Alliance) in 1996.
Jim was the first to capture a photo of the Chinese mountain cat with a camera trap he had set on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau in China’s Sichuan Province at an altitude of 12,300 feet. Images such as this have the potential to reveal important information about endangered cats and popularize these cats as species that need protection.
Today, Dr. Jim Sanderson focuses primarily on the following small wild cat species: Andean cat, Guigna, Tigrina (two species), Fishing cat, Flat-headed cat, Bay cat, Marbled cat, Leopard cat, Clouded Leopard (two species), and Manul.
In Uganda, SWCCF’s partner, Embaka, deters local community members from hunting wildlife and protects the African golden cat by addressing the root cause of hunting: the need for income and food. Embaka provides pigs to former poachers, who agree to stop poaching and to donate one of the piglets to their closest neighbor, creating an investment in the success of the pig bank, a sense of community policing, and social pressure to not hunt.
Fishing Cat February
Fishing cats are a unique cat species that is confident and content in the water. They are threatened by the loss of wetlands, swamps and mangrove habitats. During the month of February, the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance hopes to inspire in both children and adults, locally and globally, the necessity to act on behalf of fishing cats and protect wetland ecosystems.
Mobile Dental Clinic
In Uganda, SWCCF’s partner, Embaka, believes that conservation can be achieved through healthy smiles. Dental care was lacking in the local community, so Embaka uses mobile dental units to provide free dental care and treatment to local people living around protected areas. In return, local people provide voluntary community policing against poaching.
Roadkill Reduction
In Sri Lanka, the “Save Fishing Cat Conservation Project” strongly believes in community-based conservation and that education and threat reduction can save small wild cats species from local extinction. As a primary solution for roadkill challenges in the central hills, they established road signs and information boards in crucial roadkill areas, and also worked with government authorities to expand these signs around the country.
Camera Traps for Small Cats
SWCCF helps to provide camera trap software, training, and expertise to identify distribution and populations of small wild cat species globally. SWCCF’s partner in India, the Fishing Cat Project, is the world’s longest running research and conservation project on fishing cats. Their approach to conservation has led to wider global acceptance and interest in small cats.
In Uganda, SWCCF’s partner, Embaka, deters local community members from hunting wildlife and protects the African golden cat by addressing the root cause of hunting: the need for income and food. Embaka provides pigs to former poachers, who agree to stop poaching and to donate one of the piglets to their closest neighbor, creating an investment in the success of the pig bank, a sense of community policing, and social pressure to not hunt.
Fishing cats are a unique cat species that is confident and content in the water. They are threatened by the loss of wetlands, swamps and mangrove habitats. During the month of February, the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance hopes to inspire in both children and adults, locally and globally, the necessity to act on behalf of fishing cats and protect wetland ecosystems.
In Uganda, SWCCF’s partner, Embaka, believes that conservation can be achieved through healthy smiles. Dental care was lacking in the local community, so Embaka uses mobile dental units to provide free dental care and treatment to local people living around protected areas. In return, local people provide voluntary community policing against poaching.
In Sri Lanka, the “Save Fishing Cat Conservation Project” strongly believes in community-based conservation and that education and threat reduction can save small wild cats species from local extinction. As a primary solution for roadkill challenges in the central hills, they established road signs and information boards in crucial roadkill areas, and also worked with government authorities to expand these signs around the country.
SWCCF helps to provide camera trap software, training, and expertise to identify distribution and populations of small wild cat species globally. SWCCF’s partner in India, the Fishing Cat Project, is the world’s longest running research and conservation project on fishing cats. Their approach to conservation has led to wider global acceptance and interest in small cats.
Impact by the Numbers
13
small cat conservation working groups that participate in SWCCF, all led by local conservationists
41
countries where small cat conservation working groups operate
Small cats like the Flat-headed cat in Borneo are not easily found. $200 buys a trail camera and memory card used to find these small cats.
Any amount can help small cat conservationists reach out to their local communities with education programs.
Donations of any amount can help the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation create a lasting future for endangered cats by helping to grow the Small Wild Cat Conservation Fund.
Jim Sanderson Speak About Small Cats
From habitat destruction to poaching, wild cats large and small are under serious threat globally. In this session, Dr. Jim Sanderson of Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation shares about their work to protect these small cats.
News & Stories
The Four P's of Small Wild Cat Conservation
Small cat conservation is all about threat reduction—if threats are not mitigated first, there would be no individual cats left...
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Ignorance is the Greatest Threat to Borneo's Bay Cat
Many wildlife species are dubbed “elusive.” Pangolins are hard to study due to their nocturnal and secretive nature. Snow leopards...
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Protecting Wildlife Can Also Preserve History
Fossilized riverbeds in Botswana. An Andean cat geoglyph in Chile’s Atacama Desert. A pre-Incan burial site in a remote region...
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Why I Love My Cat and All Small Wild Cats
If I close my eyes, I can see my cat Truman curled up sleeping on his bed atop the bookshelf...
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Absolving India’s Fishing Cats
The afternoon heat draped across Murthy Kantimahanti as he entered Baruva, a village in the South Indian state of Andhra...
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Join Dr. Jim Sanderson on a Manul Tour in Mongolia
Several years ago, I visited some colleagues in Mongolia who were working over 415 miles southeast of Ulaanbaatar, the capital...
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The Population, Not the Individual, Evolves
Great variation can exist between individuals of the same population of a species. The central conservation question is: how different...
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A Margay Rescue in Brazil
While traveling with my colleagues in Brazil's most southeastern state of Rio Grande do Sul, we received notice that an...
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How Community-Based Conservation Benefits All Species
Everywhere the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation (SWCCF) works, we employ the principles of community-based conservation. Community-based conservation begins by...
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How Do We Know What We Do Is Working?
How do we know our threat reduction interventions are working and actually benefiting small cats and other wildlife? We could...
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Colombo’s Hidden Wild Cats
Headlights streaked across Anya Ratnayaka as she padded down the sidewalk, the hum of traffic filling her ears. The night...
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Conservation and Research: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Perhaps you’ve heard the adage: Good conservation depends on good research. But is there any truth to the statement? What...
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Pig Banks and Poachers: Protecting the African Golden Cat
To keep her from wandering into the neighbor’s garden, David Kakuru leashed his pig like a family Labrador while she...
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Return to Eden: Bakhuis Mountains, Suriname
As Steve and I drove deeper into the Bakhuis Mountains on a freshly cut track, the canopy closed above us....
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There's Magic in a Cat's Purr
The ability to purr evolved many millions of years ago, perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago. Because many species...
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The Sixth Cat
This is Costa Rica, right? Having knocked the mud off my wet boots, I peeled off my even wetter socks...
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Giritale Wildlife Training Center: Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Release
Small wild cats in Sri Lanka are extremely vulnerable to threats from human activity; they are often hit by cars...
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Gone, but Not Forgotten
In the late 1960s Jack relocated to Sumatra, a tropical island nestled between the Indian Ocean and the South China...
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Manuls Losing Their Underground Homes
Standing on top of a rocky outcrop, Dr. Jim Sanderson—founder of Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation (SWCCF)—takes stock of the vast,...
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Meet Nature's Quirkiest Cats
When it comes to wild cats, it’s the big cats that get all the attention. No one is going to...
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New Protections for Fishing Cats in India
Small cat fans have a reason to celebrate—India’s embattled, enigmatic fishing cats will receive new levels of protection thanks to...
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Pallas's Cat Found for the First Time in Nepal
Exciting camera trap images from Snow Leopard Conservancy’s Nepal team show that Pallas’s cats are living in Nepal. Although the Pallas...
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Small Cats, Small Funds
Everyone knows that lions are kings of the jungle and cheetahs are the fastest animals on earth. These famous big...
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This is How One Cat Changed Everything
Nearly 20 years ago, Dr. Jim Sanderson of Small Cat Conservation Alliance was in Chile trying to study the guigna,...
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Wildlife on Camera- Marbled Cats
A ‘Marble’-ous Small Cat- Deep in the jungles of south and southeast Asia lives a wild cat that could almost be...
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World Environment Day 2018
Today—on World Environment Day—we'd like to highlight some of the actions our Conservation Partners are taking to help create a...
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Photography Credits: Karen Povey, Jim Sanderson, Giridhar Malla, Alex Sliwa, Fishing Cat Conservancy