Chat tigre du nord

Relative abundance and estimated population densities vary greatly, and the northern Leopardus tigrinus is less abundant than the southern Leopardus guttulus and also the rarest of the tropical species of Neotropical cat (Oliveira 2011). Leopardus tigrinus is rare everywhere, including their reported habitats to date: Andean montane and cloud forests, Central American forests, Amazon forests, Rupununi Savannahs and, Brazil’s Cerrado and Caatinga domains (Moreno et al. 2011, Oliveira 2011, Payán and Gonzalez-Maya 2011, Oliveira et al. 2013). In the Amazon, density is very low, expected at approximately 0.01/100 km². Camera-trap surveys in other portions of its range indicate that the species generally occurs in densities between 1-5/100 km² or lower (Oliveira et al. 2010, 2013). In Central America the species rarely shows up in camera traps even where they are known to occur, suggesting that they either avoid traps or are naturally rare and elusive in that area (Schipper pers. comm.). A similar trend is also found in several areas in Brazil, where authors found it in most areas in intrinsically low numbers, and apparently those numbers are not owed to camera-trap shyness (Oliveira pers. comm.). The species was absent from all extensive camera-trap studies in the llanos of Colombia and all of the Amazon, depicting its extreme rarity there (Oliveira, Payán pers. comm.). The Northern Tiger Cat is negatively impacted by Ocelot numbers and does not seem to attain effective population size for long term persistence in any Conservation Unit possibly due to the “Ocelot effect” (Oliveira et al. 2010, Oliveira 2011). It seems that where Ocelots are rare or absent the average population density of tiger cats ranges from 5-20 ind./100 km² but expected to be much lower than 5/100 km² where Ocelots are present (high density estimates, ca. 20/100 km², are obtained only in very few and isolated areas) (Oliveira et al. 2010, Oliveira 2011). Leopardus tigrinus is classified as Vulnerable in Colombia (MAVDT 2005, Rodriguez-Mahecha et al. 2006) and as Endangered in Brazil (IBAMA/MMA 2014). The estimated species area of occupancy (AOO) for subspecies L. t. tigrinus and L. t. pardinoides was estimated from 893,200 to 1,020,800 km² of the total current available habitat (Oliveira et al. submitted, Payán and Gonzalez-Maya 2011). This includes applying a 20–30% reduction to compensate for inclusion of tiny fragments (which were considerable in many areas) (IBAMA/MMA 2011 a,b). Extrapolated population estimation based on the above distribution estimates and also estimated densities (0.01/km²), results in an expected total population size ranging from 8,932 to 10,208 adult individuals. Decline based on deforestation rates of the species’ habitat is certainly above 10% over the next decades (Morton et al. 2006, Mulligan 2010, Garavito et al. 2012). It seems that the savannahs of Mirador State Park and the complex of protected areas around Nascentes do Rio Parnaíba National Park in the Brazilian mid-north and the Andean protected areas in Colombia are the most important areas for the species conservation (Oliveira et al. 2008, 2014; Payán and Gonzalez-Maya 2011).