Situated at the top of their food chains and living alongside thousands of species, healthy wild cat populations signal healthy ecosystems. They occupy an astonishing 74 percent of Earth’s landmass, and nearly every forest on Earth is home to at least one wild cat species. Wild cats also overlap with three-quarters of the world’s Key Biodiversity Areas: landscapes that are home to critical populations of the world’s threatened species.
We recognize that healthy wild cat populations rely on healthy, intact habitats accessible to other ecosystems via wildlife corridors. Around the world, we preserve, maintain, connect, and restore some of the most biodiverse ecosystems to make them safer places for wild cats to hunt, breed, and raise the next generation of cubs and kittens.
We're identifying and protecting the most critical habitats and protected areas in six target landscapes to eventually create a network of connected populations and increase tiger numbers by 50 percent.
We're working to stabilize or grow puma populations in five key transcontinental strongholds and expand their range by 1.17 million km² by securing functional connectivity between population strongholds.
Panthera’s Jaguar Program spearheaded the Jaguar Corridor Initiative, which aims to connect and protect core jaguar populations and their corridors throughout jaguar range, from Mexico to Argentina.
The Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, the largest terrestrial conservation landscape in the world, plays a critical role in protecting iconic predators like lions, leopards, and cheetahs. Our efforts are centered on Kafue National Park and its surrounding areas, where we focus on preserving, maintaining, and connecting habitats essential for these wild cats. By safeguarding a corridor between the Kafue Ecosystem and KAZA, we ensure these predators can access prey and find mates, vital for their survival.
Beyond habitat preservation, we work closely with local communities to promote coexistence with wildlife. Our lion-proof bomas, designed to protect livestock from predators and prevent retaliatory killings of lions, have achieved a 100% success rate to date. We’re also fostering sustainable livelihoods through initiatives like sewing enterprises, which reduce reliance on poaching, and wildlife value programs, enabling communities to benefit from thriving wildlife populations.
This blog discusses the importance of biodiversity and how wild cats promote it, as well as our work to protect jaguar, lion, and tiger habitats.
Get an inside look into this project, which collects data on roadkill and recommends and implements measures to make highways safer for wild cats.
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Our research on pumas returning to the Eastern United States forecasted pumas will likely only reclaim 2.1 percent of unoccupied range by 2100.
Thanks to Olan the fishing cat and his GPS collar, we learned much about how his species' navigates through human-developed landscapes.
Discover some of the most severe threats to wild cat habitats, including climate change fragmentation, and how we address these threats.
Our Arabian Leopard Initiative researches this Critically Endangered species, finds suitable habitat for their eventual reintroduction, and more.
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© Sebastian Kennerknecht
