{"id":2483,"date":"2018-01-19T17:33:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T17:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/?p=2483"},"modified":"2018-01-19T17:34:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T17:34:16","slug":"dice-research-reveals-hope-for-chiles-vulnerable-guina-wildcat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2018\/01\/19\/dice-research-reveals-hope-for-chiles-vulnerable-guina-wildcat\/","title":{"rendered":"DICE research reveals hope for Chile’s vulnerable g\u00fci\u00f1a wildcat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research carried out by Dr Nicolas Galvez,\u00a0a former DICE PhD candidate,\u00a0has\u00a0discovered that\u00a0the g\u00fci\u00f1a wildcat from Chile\u00a0is more\u00a0tolerant of deforestation and direct killing\u00a0by people as retaliation for\u00a0attacking livestock (poultry) than thought, but that\u00a0<\/strong>land loss due to intensive farming\u00a0poses a far bigger risk to its future.<\/p>\n

The g\u00fci\u00f1a has been in decline for many years, with\u00a0<\/strong>its population estimated to be fewer than 10,000\u00a0individuals, and it has been listed as\u00a0Vulnerable\u00a0on the\u00a0IUCN Red List<\/a>\u00a0since 1996. The animal has a reputation for attacking livestock and, therefore, is perceived negatively by rural inhabitants in the region. As a result,\u00a0it had been assumed\u00a0that a major threat to the future of the g\u00fci\u00f1a\u00a0was human persecution, coupled with extensive farming and logging that has seen\u00a0<\/strong>its habitat reduced by almost 70% since 1970.<\/p>\n

However, through a series of questionnaires, camera trap data and remote-sensed images, the researchers, led by Dr Galvez, found that\u00a0the g\u00fci\u00f1a is remarkably adaptable to forest loss. In particular, the team found that large, intensive agricultural areas are\u00a0actually well suited for the g\u00fci\u00f1a and should not be dismissed as poor quality habitat. This is because there are often unfarmed areas that provide refuge, food resources and suitable conditions for rearing young. As a result of this, the researchers suggested that\u00a0farmers with large properties are key stakeholders in the conservation of this species\u00a0and must be at the centre of any conservation interventions that aim to protect existing land where the g\u00fci\u00f1a is usually found.<\/p>\n

The findings also highlight a framework that can be used to spatially match social and ecological data which\u00a0could help with conservation efforts for other similar small to medium-sized carnivores in other parts of the world. The framework provides a clearer understanding of how\u00a0habitat loss, land fragmentation and human interactions affect species survival. The paper has been published\u00a0in the\u00a0Journal of Applied Ecology<\/em>, entitled\u00a0A spatially integrated framework for assessing socioecological drivers of carnivore decline<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Dr Nicolas Galvez, whose research was supervised by Professor Zoe Davies<\/a>, is now a lecturer at the\u00a0Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile.<\/p>\n

Other academic institutions involved in the research were the\u00a0Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile and the university\u00b4s Centre for Local Development (CEDEL-UC), University of Melbourne, Bangor University, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (wildCRU) at University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

Photograph of g\u00fci\u00f1a wildcat taken by Jerry Laker.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research carried out by Dr Nicolas Galvez,\u00a0a former DICE PhD candidate,\u00a0has\u00a0discovered that\u00a0the g\u00fci\u00f1a wildcat from Chile\u00a0is more\u00a0tolerant of deforestation and direct killing\u00a0by people as retaliation … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40284,"featured_media":2484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6599,124,70,6600],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2486,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions\/2486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}