We don’t have a f***king clue as to the number of Jaguarundis that are left in the world. Yep, it’s true. It looks to me as if people have given up, what I mean is the people who are meant to not give up, the conservationists, the people who are concerned about protecting wildlife. There seems to be a resignation among conservationists that the inevitable will continue to happen which is a decrease in the numbers of all wild cat species including the Jaguarundi (and sometimes rapidly as for the lion). Search results for ‘how many Jaguarundis are left in the world’ does not produce numbers. You’d think they’d be there for all to see in search results, a least an estimate in the first paragraph of the article but nada. The top search result just copies the IUCN website and they know nothing.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. They have a red list which is referred to as the IUCN Red List. It’s a list which tells us the status in terms of survivability of very many species including the Jaguarundi. These guys should know how many Jaguarundis are that in the world but they haven’t got a clue.
The date they last assessed this cat’s status was on 9 May 2014. That is about seven years ago. A lot can happen in terms of the conservation of a species in that time beaing in mind the rapid destruction of habitat. They just say that the numbers are decreasing. They also say that it was thought at one time that the species was fairly common and abundant. They refer to 1966. Well they ain’t common and abundant now. There are as scarce as hens’ teeth. They say that in terms of population density they are at 0.01-0.05 per square kilometre. Let’s just say that there are almost none for every square kilometre in the place where they’re meant to exist.
I translate that as meaning that they are almost extinct but this august organisation say that they are unconcerned about this cat species. They are classified as “Least Concern”. I say that is a pathetic classification. The work they are doing is pathetic and they should be ashamed of themselves.
All the usual reasons for the decline in numbers of wild cat species apply to this cat. It all comes down to human activity which in itself makes cats hide or run away. But then when you add into the mix human activity which destroys their habitat because it needs to be cut down for commercial reasons then you add another dimension to the threats to their survivability.
Roads and railroads which dissect their habitat also harm them because they disturb them and fragment their distribution. Small populations are less likely to survive. The Red List also lists hunting and trapping as a threat. I don’t really want to go over the usual threats. Just ball it altogether and reduce the threats to human presence and activities in one form or another, primarily loss of habitat and secondarily just being pushed off their territory and persecuted. That’s what it comes down to in my opinion.