PANTHERA NEWSLETTER. Welcome to Panthera's Newsletter! Issue 5 September In This Issue

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1 Issue 5 September 2009 PANTHERA NEWSLETTER In This Issue Cultivating 'Change Makers' the World Over Rays of Hope Shine on Tigers Forever Sites Committed to Saving Cats Wherever They Are The Story Within Poo Welcome to Panthera's Newsletter! Panthera is an international nonprofit whose sole mission is the conservation of the world's 36 species of wild cats. Bringing together the knowledge and expertise of the world's top cat biologists, and working in partnership with local and international NGOs, scientific institutions, universities and government agencies, Panthera develops and implements range-wide species conservation strategies for the world's most imperiled wild cats. Cultivating 'Change Makers' the World Over Where the Wild Jaguars Are Huffington Post Blog - Conservation's Unsung Heroes Congratulations Dr. Guy Balme! PQuick Links Contact us! About Us Panthera in the News Partners Oxford has a deep and rich history for higher learning, and is considered to be one of the most prestigious Universities in the world. We are proud to say that now, it is also home to the first ever catfocused postgraduate Diploma course for foreign nationals! In August 2009, in partnership with Panthera, this new course in International Wildlife Conservation Practice was officially launched, along with the opening of the new facilities to house the students, at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU). Both the Diploma course and the buildings have been generously funded by Thomas Kaplan (Panthera's Chairman) and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan. The students, affectionately called the 'WildCRU Panthers', come from countries as far away as Bolivia, Zimbabwe and Bhutan, bringing with them depths of knowledge and experience, and leaving armed with additional skills to better help them contribute to and lead wild cat conservation efforts in their home countries. Strong, committed, and

2 well-equipped individuals are paramount to effective conservation and these students are shinning beacons of hope for wildlife in all corners of the world. To learn more about this launch, please visit: and Rays of Hope Shine on Tigers Forever Sites Tigers are definitely in trouble and reports keep emerging about more depleted reserves across tiger range states. But, there are a few key tiger sites that are showing success after three years of Panthera's Tigers Forever Program, in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Panthera just had its third annual Tigers Forever (TF) meeting at the Huai Kha Khaeng (HKK) site in Thailand. HKK and the Western Ghats site, India, have both shown major success in the reduction of hunting and initial increases in prey and tiger numbers. Other sites such as the one in Lao P.D.R. and the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve in Myanmar are showing initial increases in tiger prey, but with no strong data yet on exactly what is occurring with tigers. Two new sites have now been added into the TF program - one in Malaysia and another in Gunung Leuser in Sumatra, Indonesia. Both of these sites have Government backing - a critical factor in the success of any conservation program. What makes Tigers Forever unique is its streamlined focus on mitigating the most serious threats: the killing of tigers and their prey, and the protection of their habitats. HKK has the needed foot soldiers who are all government staff, who have received the best of training (including morale boosters!) and who patrol the protected areas effectively and efficiently. Their constant presence, arrests and confiscations, have secured tigers at this site in Thailand. In the Western Ghats, along with effective patrols, the local communities have played a significant role in its success due to the long-term role of local partners working on voluntary resettlement. Local people are choosing to move out of key areas for tigers into government subsidized villages, with education, wells, and health care. It has been a win-win for tigers and people. For more about Panthera's Tigers Forever program, please visit:

3 Committed to Saving Cats Wherever They Are Due to efforts by Panthera and WCS, tiger conservation continues to have strong backing from the Myanmar government and the Minister of Forestry. Just this past July, Panthera's CEO, Alan Rabinowitz met with the Minister in Myanmar to continue to discuss the needs for tigers. Despite numerous difficulties in terms of logistics and funding for working in this country, Panthera continues to make headway with protected area designation and enforcement. Rabinowitz is frequently asked how he can work in places like Burma, countries with dictatorships, deplorable human rights records, and other issues, and his answer is "until animals have a voice, we'll work to protect them regardless of the political regimes that they are forced to exist under". To learn more about Panthera's work in Myanmar, please visit: The Story Within Poo It's beyond difficult to try to see snow leopards in the wild, let alone count them! But as conservationists, we have to be able to detect changes in leopard numbers over time to assess whether we are having a positive impact. While we can't find snow leopards to count, we do find their scat - which can tell us volumes. Through Panthera's partnership with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) established in 2007, we have developed a state-of-the-art feline genetics laboratory and now the largest genetic database for felids. With the Snow Leopard Trust we have been evaluating fecal genetics as one potential tool to count snow leopards. Recently our team collected 261 potential snow leopard feces from two study sites in southern Mongolia.

4 Genetic trials at AMNH determined that only 10 of the samples were actually from snow leopards. The majority were from other carnivores including Pallas cats, wolves, domestic dogs and foxes. (Ok, so we weren't that great at telling whose poo is whose, but dogs can! We will be looking into using specially trained scat-sniffing dogs in the near future, so stay tuned). But of the 10 snow leopard samples, the lab was able to identify seven individual cats. This is really exciting as it tells us that the method is extremely effective at identifying individual animals and helping conservationists not only count but conserve one of the most elusive and secretive cats. To learn more about Panthera's snow leopard work, visit: Where the Wild Jaguars Are Panthera captured possibly the first known camera trap image of a wild jaguar in the Mexican coastal state of Guerrero, a popular tourist destination. Sadly, the only jaguars to be seen in Guerrero are usually dead jaguars - killed for their skins as well as their perceived threat to cattle. But this camera trap photo confirms once again the resilience of this species. Panthera is working on the ground across jaguar range to ensure that wild jaguars can roam free of persecution, and that

5 The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again. The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again. relevant solutions to human-jaguar conflict are found and implemented. To learn more about Panthera's jaguar work, please visit: Conscientious Artist Paints for Conservation Internationally acclaimed artist Abbey Walmsley is showing support for Panthera's Jaguar Corridor project by donating a percentage of sale from each limited edition print of her life-like wild jaguar titled 'Breaking Shadows'. This is a shining and creative example of the many ways in which people can help show their support and bring awareness to conservation. For more information please visit: Huffington Post Blog: Unsung Heroes To read Panthera's latest Huffington Post blog: Conservation's Unsung Heroes: The Best Story's Never Told, by Panthera's Managing Director Andrea Heydlauff, please click here. Congratulations to Dr. Guy Balme Guy Balme, Panthera's first Kaplan Grant recipient, is the newest of Panthera's staff members to be awarded his doctorate, for his work on the leopards of the Phinda-Mkhuze ecosystem in South Africa. His thesis was considered such high quality that all three of his examiners independently concluded it needed no revisions to pass- almost unheard of in the world of academia! Guy's work has now been published as five peer-reviewed papers and a chapter in the forthcoming book, Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids from Oxford University Press. Check out our website for copies of Guy's papers and many other articles from Panthera staff:

6 To learn more about Panthera and how you can help save the world's wild cats, visit: To see more 'Panthera in the News', please visit: