Amazing Animals Expeditions

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Southern Brazil Wildlife Conservation Trip

Conservation and wild cats are two of our biggest passions. We got our first Geoffroy’s cats, Rio and Aries, over 6 years ago and completely fell in love with the species. We realized most people have never seen or heard of this small wild cat from South America because there are only about 90 of them in zoos in the US. We also learned about all the threats these cats are facing in the wild, with not much conservation work being done to protect them. One idea we came up with to help bring more awareness to Geoffroy’s cats was to create World Geoffroy’s Cat Day, which is now celebrated each year across the world on January 28th! When we started planning the first annual World Geoffroy’s Cat Day in 2021, we were asked to partner with the Geoffroy’s Cat Working Group. The GCWG was founded in December of 2020 and now consists of around 50 researchers and biologist in all 6 countries where these cats are found. The focus of the GCWG is to protect Geoffroy’s cats in the wild! After learning about the GCWG and their mission, I knew we had to make the trip to South America to see wild Geoffroy’s cats and their amazing conservation work firsthand.

After over a year of planning, we traveled to Porto Alegre, Brazil in November to team up with our friends and partners with the Geoffroy’s Cat Working Group to join them in the field! Once we landed in Porto Alegre, we drove 5-hour south towards Uruguay to a little town called Seival. It was a beautiful drive through the Brazilian Pampa biome, where we met Felipe, Marina, and Flavia, and started our first afternoon using telemetry to track wild Geoffroy’s cats through GPS collars. Felipe is tracking wild Geoffroy’s cats and feral cats in the area to study any over lapping ranges and determine the threat of the feral cats transferring possible diseases to wild cats. To use telemetry, we used a large antenna that would start to beep if we were in an area close to a cat. Each collar using a different radio frequency so we could identify each cat. Geoffroy’s cats are so small they are unable to wear a bigger collar that pings with a satellite in real time, so to be able to collect data from these smaller collars we had to get within 50 meters of a cat to download all the information to a second telemetry device. Another innovated researching technique is the small GPS collars on the Geoffroy’s cats are only turned on for 5-hours every day. This helps saves the battery life so the collars can collect data for almost 6 months instead of 1 month. This brilliant battery saver is great, but it also meant we only had a small window to try and collect data from the cats. Luckily, during our 6 days out in the field we were able to download data from 7 cats!

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Each morning we started the day going out to check traps for Geoffroy’s cats. We had 12 traps set and baited with live pigeons (the pigeons and cats were not harmed in this process). The traps had a protected area with food and water that the Geoffroy’s cats would safely be housed until we were able to get to them. Our very first morning, we went to the second trap and there was a beautiful melanistic Geoffroy’s cat sitting in it!! This trap was in a nice, shaded location right by a tunnel that was built under the roadway to give wildlife a safe passage to cross under the busy road! We quickly went to check all other traps, one did have a Pampas fox in it, that was safely released, but with no other cats were in the traps. After checking all the traps, we headed back to do a full work up on our first cat! Dr. Ana is a wildlife vet that joins Felipe and Marina during every capture campaign (they have permits with the government to trap and collect data on these wildcats and do capture campaigns every 3 months in this area). While Dr. Ana tended to the cat and sedated it, the rest of us set up a field clinic in a shaded area to keep the cat cool and comfortable during the work up. Once she was anesthetized, Felipe weighted the cat and took all sorts of measurements of her. He measured her length, the size of her paws, ears, and teeth! Once measurements were completed, Dr. Ana hooked the cat up to a machine to monitor all her vitals. She then collected blood work to test for genetics, parasites, funguses, and glucose levels. While this is done Felipe also takes hair samples to test for toxins and inspects for any ticks and overall body condition. All this data collected is very important for future studies. Once the entire work-up was done, the cat got fluids and a shot of vitamins before being woken up. The Geoffroy’s cat was placed back into the trap to wake up, so she was not too startled or afraid. This melanistic female was a new cat that had not been trapped yet, so we had the honor of naming her Brilie, a combination of Brain and Kylie. Brilie was only about 5 pounds and too small to have a GPS collar placed on her. We left her back in the trap, in the tunnel passage, and came back a few hours later once she was fully awake to release her. We angled her trap towards a nice area of dense bushes, a perfect area for her to run and hide. Brian and I opened the trap door to release her. It was an amazing experience getting to help collect so much valuable data from a wild Geoffroy’s cat and then to see her run free.

The following day we found all empty traps but had a very successful afternoon tracking and downloading data points from a female Geoffroy’s cat, who is also suspected to have a kitten in the area! We found her at a local farmers property with many dogs running around, but clearly this cat felt safe enough to have her kitten in the back of his property. The farmer was very nice to allow us on his land to track her, and afterwards we all had a nice conversation to teach the farmer about the wildcats in the area. Dr. Ana and the team offered to fix and vaccinate any of his dogs and cats for him, and they plan to bring him a good supply of dog food to help. Felipe and Marina have built such a great relationship with the local farmers and do an amazing job teaching them about the wildlife in the area. They teach everyone how to live with the animals around them, instead of seeing them as a threat. We even visited a skate park that Marina organized local artist and children to paint the skate ramps with the different wild cats of the region! It was inspiring to see what great work they have been doing to bring community awareness to help conserve the wildlife in the Pampa.

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The fourth day was another successful morning, this time with a gorgeous spotted Geoffroy’s cat trapped in a forest area. It is a perfect habitat for Geoffroy’s as well as another small wildcat in the region, the margay. Dr. Ana got to work to sedate the cat and do another full work up on her like what was done on the melanistic female, Brilie. This spotted girl was also just over 5 pounds and still a little small to put a GPS collar on her. She was another new cat that had not been trapped before, so we microchipped her and decided to name her Kylian. After getting all the samples, she was also given fluids and vitamins and placed back into the trap for a couple more hours to come out of sedation. We went on to spend the afternoon using telemetry to collect more data from GPS collars and then headed back to Kylian to release her. We set her trap up on a big, beautiful, winding tree branch, and released her back into the wild!

Spending so much time driving and searching for wild Geoffroy’s cats, we, of course, came across many other wild animals that share the region. We saw capybaras relaxing by a nice big pond, foxes hunting along the road, tegus, rhea, skunk, deer, Quaker parrots, and many other beautiful birds. Unfortunately, we also saw the impacts of humans as well. A very large coal mine was built in 2016 which also brought with it a large, paved road and many workers commuting each day. There were many animals we saw along that road that had been hit. There is also a high demand for soy crops which is causing many farmers to turn their land into soy fields harvested every 6 months, instead of natural land for cattle. Much of the land is now fragmented because of this, only leaving protected areas around waterways untouched. This seems to be the only areas the Geoffroy’s now use. And on one of our final days, we got a unfortunate call that a farmer had found a Geoffroy’s cat dead in his field, with one of the GPS collars on it. We went to find the cat, which turned out to be the biggest male they had trapped, Gatado. It was good to still be able to retrieve the collar and after reviewing the data on it he had sadly been hit by a car. He had the largest range of any of the collard cats, about 12 square miles. This was very sad to find, but also important to help the GCWG continue to help protect these cats from human conflicts. They have already been putting up road signs to make drivers aware of the area and may help with the future construction of more tunnels and fencing to prevent car strikes all together.

This was the most amazing and inspiring trip I have been on. Flavia, who is the lead of the GCWG and the advisor over Felipe and Marina’s PhD studies, shared so much information with us about all the work being done to protect these cats in Brazil and the other South American countries they are found. We hope by sharing this with all of you, that it also inspires you to think of ways we can all make a positive impact on the natural world around us. We are always raising funds to support the GCWG and being conscious of the impacts we have. Trying to buy from local farmers in your area, recycling, reusing, and reducing are all great things to think about.