This Week at Liberty

As wildlife enthusiasts, at least I assume you are one if you are following this blog, I am sure you understand two basic principles of protecting wildlife and the role wildlife plays in this world…habitat and diversity. Habitat, or a suitable home, is about as basic as you can get. You have to have a place to live, make a living, raise a family in order to survive and thrive as a species. Looking closely at the causes of extinctions of species one finds loss of suitable habitat as one of the leading causes. Loss of diversity is closely related with all of its damning properties. If a creature is looking for habitat in a small cafeteria of potentials, the resulting competition for habitat leads to losers and those losers result in loss of diversity. Loss of diversity is basically a loss of possibilities. We don’t know what we don’t know about wildlife and how it has evolved to survive and how those learnings can help us survive. For example, Gila monsters secrete a material that helps diabetics. Plant seed burrs have methods for pollination and dispersal by sticking to animal furs and being transported and spread successfully in their efforts to survive and thrive… fyi Velcro mimicked this behavior. Biomimicry teaches us that we have so much to learn from studying the successes of other plants and animals. This leads me to an interesting story that has recently been drawing attention with the likes of Jimothy, the neckless raccoon and Jackie, the Big Bear Bald Eagle.

Enter Tilcayo. This wild cat, smaller than our domestic cat, replete with leopard-like spots and endearing rounded ears weighing 3 pounds and 18 inches from head to base of the tail, was found by a family in Boliva in the Yungas region near La Paz. The likes of this little cat haven’t been seen since 1923.  The family turned him over to a sanctuary after all attempts to make him a “pet cat” failed.

When it was realized that the rarity of the cat’s existence was an important discovery, a complete genome sequencing was undertaken. At that point the uniqueness of the cat was discovered. Before this, the species was not recognized, and it appears that this lineage split had occurred around 1.4 million years ago. There is so much to learn about this ‘new’ species…what is the diet, the range, behaviors, etc. It is hoped that this designation as a new species will help protect the habitat in which it exists.  Deforestation is happening all around the area due to the impact of gold mining.

Jonas Lescroaet from the University of Antwerp further explained “We should make haste in doing these kinds of discoveries, because all of this biodiversity is under pressure and its disappearing as we speak.”

We don’t know what we can learn from studying this new member of the cat family. We don’t know what connections exist between this new species and others surrounding the area. We don’t know what we don’t know.  And, if it disappears, we will never know what we might need to know. Protecting species and habitat ultimately protects us.  Excuse me for being selfish, but I kind of like our world. Protect the Tilcayo and explore its significance.

Diversity and habitat reign. We ignore this at our own destruction.