Cats at the end of the world: improving our understanding of the kodkod in Argentina

Abstract

The kodkod (Leopardus guigna) is the smallest felid in the Americas (Molina 1782). Little is known of this elusive species, which ranges over 300,000 km2 from Chile to Argentina (Napolitano et al. 2015). Kodkods are mostly found in forest and shrubland habitat in the Valdivian Temperate Forest and the Chilean Matorral ecoregions (Nowell and Jackson 1996; Sunquist and Sunquist 2002, 2009; Fig. 1). Across its already restricted distribution, the kodkod faces major threats like habitat loss and fragmentation (e.g., deforestation, land transformation for cattle or real estate), and human persecution, killing by dogs, and vehicle collisions (Napolitano et al. 2015, Monteverde et al. 2019). Thus, the species is categorized as “Vulnerable” at a global scale (Napolitano et al. 2015 Monteverde et al. 2019). In Argentina, the kodkod can only be found in the Andean Mountains of Neuquén, Rio Negro, and Chubut provinces covering a total area of ~20,000 km2 (Monteverde et al. 2019). Kodkods are only present in a few National Parks (i.e., Lanín, Nahuel Huapi, Lago Puelo and Los Alerces), where they have been declared a “species with special value”, a protection category that includes all species that: i) are highly threatened, ii) are distributed in at least 10% of the Argentinian national parks, and iii) represent societal and spiritual value for local people (Monteverde et al. 2019). Until recently, there were only two records of the kodkod in Los Alerces National Park (LANP; Fig. 1). However, kodkod ecology and habitat use are unknown in this area (Guerisoli et al. 2020).