FCF Funds Margay Conservation

Nov. 2007 - Parque Nacional do Iguaçu, Brazil - Anne-Sophie Bertrand announced that after six months of administrative hurdles, she is pleased the Brazilian government has issued a research license allowing capture of more margays for her studies.

The $5,000 Conservation Grant approved by the FCF Conservation Committee awarded Ms. Bertrand will buy eight brand new UHF/GPS radiocollars. Such equipment has never been used on small cats like the margay so this is a unique opportunity. These collars are only 70 g. and provide for one year or so: exact 2D (and sometimes 3D) geographical locations, date, time, altitude, longitude, number of satellites and the dilution of precision, i.e. an index of the quality of the GPS locations. Plus the radio system will allow determining whether the cat is active or inactive. Last but not least, two important features: the collars are equipped of a mortality signal and an automatic drop-off system when the pre-set monitoring ends.
 
Those research questions are only touching a few aspects of the poorly known in-situ margay ecology. FCF members are proud to support a significant scientific contribution on margay ecology before their shrinking habitat (the Atlantic forest) has turned into pastures, soy crops and sugar cane forest.