Gulf Coast Jaguarundi - Herpailurus yagouaroundi: Current Status and Recovery Goals - Amber Jaitrong

Image Courtesy of Dave Irving

Summarize description and ecology of organism

The Gulf Coast jaguarundi looks as if it is a hybrid between an otter/weasel and a cat, when first looking at it, the term instantly came to mind of “otter cat”. The Gulf Coast Jaguarundi or Puma Yagouaroundi Cacomitli is a subspecies of the jaguarundi. This shy species is quite small with a 5 kg/11 pounds with a long, slender body, small flat head, short legs, round ears and a long tail. Their two main morphs (color patterns) are dark which includes black, grey, brown and the other is red which includes yellows all the way to brown/red. It has been observed that the darker colors exist in the rainforest and the paler colors in the drier areas. 

Red and grey color morph jaguarundis allogrooming, Image Courtesy of Windscreen Arkive

The mating season for the Jaguarundi is November to December. They then have a gestation of period of 70 - 75 days and have a litter size of about 1 - 4 kittens . The kittens have spots that disappear as they age, eat solid food around 6 weeks, have been observed to be with mother for as long as 2 years, and are sexually mature at 2 or 3. The cat lives on average to about 15 but has been recorded to live to around 20 - 24. However, beyond the breeding period, they are animals that hunt and live by themselves. They are actually most active during the daytime, which is one of the factors that led to people thinking they were common and abundant. Their home ranges up to 100 square meters, which is greater than any other Neotropical small cat. An amazing fact about this cat is that it has around 13 different distinct calls that ranges from chirps to purrs to whistles! These cats are mostly terrestrial but have the ability to climb and has been seen to jump two meters off of the ground to catch a bird, and are even good swimmers.

Three week old jaguarundi kitten, portrait Image Courtesy of Windscreen Arkive

The diet of the Jaguarundi is mostly of small prey with the occasional larger prey. Usually hunting small mammals like rodents and rabbits, birds, reptiles, sometimes amphibians, and fish. They have recently found an appetite for livestock and poultry, which has started to get them in trouble with famers. A fun fact is that in Central America, some indigenous communities have tamed the cat so that they control the village’s rodent population! The cat does compete with other small cats, especially the Ocelot. As one can see from the wide variety of food the cat consumes, they areas it lives in are just as versatile. The have adapted to live in elevations up to 6500 feet from open to closed environments and from dry plains to swamps! The cat is truly remarkable.

Geographic and population changes

Image Courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  Geographic distribution of jaguarundi subspecies in Central and South America: P. y. fossata, P. y. panamesisi, P. y. melantho, P. y. eyra, P. y. yagouaroundi, and P. y. ameghinoi (adapted from Arroyo 2007)

The jaguarundi needs dense vegetation so that they can hunt. Some examples of what it uses are dense, thorny shrublands, woodlands, and bunchgrass pastures that are near dense brush/woods cover that they can use for shelter. However, they can live in a variety of habitats and places, for they are ‘generalists’ and adapt easily. The Jaguarundis of all subspecies live in areas like Central America such as in Mexico, down to South America like Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and the region where this blog is focused on, the United States. In the U.S. they once ranged from Southeast Arizona, southern Texas, and has even been spotted in Florida. Their habitat is both open and closed from rainforest to swamp to savanna to semi-arid thorn scrub, it prefers areas with dense ground cover so it has protection from predators and it is where it gets most of its prey. In Texas specifically it is around the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Due to urbanization, most of its habitat has depleted. It has been cleared for farming, homes, and businesses, and in the future possibly the border wall. Additionally, with Hurricane Harvey that happened this past summer, this further negatively affected the Jaguarundi, it's habitat, and the 75 other endangered and threatened animals and 30 threatened and endangered plant species in Texas.

Image Courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

The Jaguarundis were originally thought to be quiet common and even abundant, this is because they are an animal that is seen often during the day, instead of night. But in reality it is the opposite for them, they are uncommon and are low density in all of it’s regions, even endangered in the U.S. The last confirmed sighting of a Gulf Coast Jaguarundi in the United States was in April 1986 and were first listed as endangered on June 14, 1976.

Image Courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Geographic distribution of jaguarundi subspecies in Mexico: P. y. tolteca, P. y. cacomitili, and P. y. fossata (adapted from Arroyo 2007)

Listing and main threats to its continued existence

The last confirmed sighting of a Gulf Coast Jaguarundi in the United States was in April 1986 when it died on the roadway, however, they were first listed as endangered on June 14, 1976.  The reason that these subspecies are considered endangered is because of their low numbers and loss of habitat.  

Image Courtesy of ThingLink

The Jaguarundi is one of the species that are “generalists” in that they are quite flexible in what kind of habitat they can survive in. However, they are still going under a decline. The reason for this is due to habitat destruction for urbanization and agricultural expansion.  This is happening especially in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. About 95% of thornscrub, a habitat they thrive extremely off of, has declined. Another threat to the species is actually due to the possibility of the U.S./Mexico border being built. This border poses a threat because it fragments the species’ habitat as well as reduces it. Along with this, the border reduces this species and other border species access to resources such as food, water, migration, and other populations. 70 miles of fence have been proposed in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and already 56 miles of have been constructed. In other areas that Jaguarundis live in, they tend to be caught in traps not intended for them. Another threat is that due to their recent interest in catching poultry, Jaguarundis are threatened by annoyed farmers. Lastly, Jaguarundis are in competition with other small cats such as the Ocelot. They are affected greatly by what is known as the "ocelot effect", where the Ocelot high density population is leaving little food for the already small Jaguarundi population.

Description of recovery plan 

• Create partnerships with Mexico, researchers, conservationists, state agencies, landowners, oil and gas companies, border patrol, homeland security, and other agencies so that all are on board to work to recover the Gulf Coast Jaguarundi
• Monitor the species to understand what is known and what is not (which at the moment greatly outweighs what is not known) such as diseases and habits.
• Figure how to best reestablish the population through researching the amount of habitat needed, the minimum population to thrive, the amount of prey that will support such a population, risks that may come from reintroduction, and figure a captive breeding program that can be used to implement translocation into Texas.
• Assess the landscape of Texas and create maps of where possible habitats can be restored, look into protecting them, and then maintain and better any already existing habitats
• Figure out how to minimize impact from urbanization, border projects, road projects, oil, gas, and seismic projects.
• Look into possible road projects that can create crossing structures for the wildlife to cross, maintain ones in place, due to the huge impact road mortality can make on a such a small and not yet stable population.
• Create incentives for landowners to want to plant native habitats and protect the species and retaliation for those who hunt and kill the animal.
• Look into the effects of competitor species like bobcat and ocelot.
• Create a good partnership with Mexico so that if borders are created, crossing may be made to reduce dispersal effects.
• Provide water sources in areas shown through studies to be popular water drinking spots for the Jaguarundi. This is important due to Climate Change threatening water sources. The project would include solar power water pumps, restoration of natural wetlands, and wells.

If the recovery efforts were to be fully funded and carried out successfully as planned in the recovery plan then the hope is to have the Gulf Coast Jaguarundi downlisted by 2040, and delisted by 2050. If this is highly prioritized it could cost up to 20 million dollars.

To be reclassified from endangered to threatened, there must be more knowledge obtained about the species itself, three or more groups separately living in different areas that are thriving and total up to more than 250 individuals. The populations must be either stable or increasing for a minimum of 10 years. Also, their habitat must be restored so that there is no risk of the Jaguarundi becoming extinct again. The total area of the habitat must be at least 850 miles squared.

To be delisted totally then along with there being three or more groups living separately and thriving there must be at least 500 total individuals and have been stable or increasing for 20 years. As before the habitat must be restored fully but instead at least 1,700 miles squared to support them

What can you do

An action communities arounds the Rio Grande Valley have started to implement is to replant native shrubs so that they can restore their habitat. Other actions include assessing, protecting, and restoring necessary habitat that was lost in the many kinds of development such as urban development. What you can do to help includes that if you are from this area or know anyone in this area, encourage them to be a part of the movement to restore the Gulf Coast Jaguarundi habitat.

Jaguarundi snarling

Image Courtesy of Wildscreen Arkive

However, as it was mentioned above, the possible building of the wall at the border between Mexico and America will greatly affect the Jaguarundi as well as many other species’ survival. So something you can do, regardless of where you live, is to do indepth research on the possible wall that is proposed by Donald Trump. It can be seen from this blog post that politics can make it’s way and affect the very existence of a species. A deeper understand of the wall and it’s consequences will better inform you on what decision you should make in regards of the wall, which could then very possibly help the Jagarundi species.

Other Resources

For more resources check out this link by Biodiversity Warriors which has videos and more on the Jaguarundi!

Sources

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/636910440298840064
https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/Images/ES_Map_images/A05H.jpg
http://www.businessinsider.com/endangered-jaguarundi-returns-to-texas-2014-1
http://www.arkive.org/jaguarundi/puma-yagouaroundi/
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/9948/0
https://biodiversitywarriors.wikispaces.com/Gulf+Coast+Jaguarundi

https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2014/04/11/endangered-jaguarundi.aspx

https://bigcatrescue.org/jaguarundi-facts/
http://research.biology.arizona.edu/mosquito/willott/323/project/endcats/Jagundi.html
http://www.defendersblog.org/2017/08/hard-lessons-hope-hurricane-harvey/
http://wildcatconservation.org/us-jaguarundi-receives-recovery-roadmap/
https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/Documents/R2ES/GulfCoastJaguarundi_FinalRecoveryPlan_Dec2013.pdf