Habitat loss due to deforestation of Polylepis forests is increasing the incidence of human-wildlife conflict between communities and threatened feline species such as the Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita), puma (Puma concolor) and pampas or Peruvian desert cat (Leopardus garleppi) in the central Andes of Peru.A pioneering new Indigenous women-led citizen science conservation project in the Ayacucho region of Central Peru aims to obtain baseline data on wildcats and mitigate human-wildlife conflict.At first, local women were quite bemused by the project, but they’ve slowly began to weave it into their lives, and find it enjoyable community space they can claim ownership over where men do not dominate.Since the start of the project, there’s been a reduction in puma and wildcat attacks on livestock and attitudes toward the animals are changing within the community.
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Ida Auris Arango remembers the day in 2023 when she stumbled upon the Andean cat and its young on the mountainside. While shepherding her alpacas, she heard her dog barking and spotted the fog-gray feline cornered against a boulder, hackles raised and hissing as it shielded a pair of kittens. Grabbing the dog by the scruff of its neck, she gave the cats time to vanish among the queuña (Polylepis) trees.
“It had a right to life. It was beautiful, and I was happy to see it,” she says of the fleeting encounter with the endangered wildcat species, one of the Andes’ most elusive mammals.
For much of Ida’s life, Quechua locals treated the deaths of wildcats with ambivalence or even welcomed them. Attacks on livestock had been causing economic losses and driving a conflict that seemed to have no clear resolution. But attitudes toward felines have been rapidly changing in the village of Licapa in the Andes of central Peru. The changes are the work of a new conservation project led by Indigenous women. A project first created by Quechua conservation biologist Merinia Mendoza Almeida and wildcat expert Jim Sanderson, women in the community have made it their own.
At first, they were bemused by the project. But the women slowly began to weave it into their lives and found it fun. It became a community space, one that was not led by men who typically dominate social affairs, nor the Peruvian government. It was a women’s project, a Quechua effort and a meaningful gathering.
“I always knew I wanted to research these animals, but I never expected to become a peacemaker between them and my people,” Almeida says.
Alpacas are an important livestock animal whose wool is a major livelihood source for rural Quechua communities. Image courtesy of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación.
A fading forest
Queuña forests are among the most endangered ecosystems in the Andes. Logging, overgrazing, road construction and wildfires have reduced them to just 1-3% of their original extent. Climate change threatens to shrink them further, endangering biodiversity and water security across the region.
In the Peruvian central Andes, pressures from deforestation have pushed wild animals closer to Indigenous communities, increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Among the mammals commonly involved in conflict are three feline species: the near-threatened puma (Puma concolor) and Peruvian desert cat or pampas cat (Leopardus garleppi) and the endangered Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita), of which fewer than 1,500 are estimated to exist.
“It’s not deforestation per se that drives conflict between cats and people in the Andes, but the impact that habitat loss has on prey populations like vizcachas and deer, which can cause wildcats to start preying on peoples’ domestic animals,” says Cindy Hurtado, a carnivore biologist and researcher at the University of British Columbia.
These attacks harm the villagers’ livelihoods — and it is women, who have the role to care for the domestic animals, who often witness the conflict.
In Licapa, as in many rural Quechua villages across the Andes, men typically seek work in the cities, while women remain in the village. Raising children, they also tend to small livestock such as chickens and guinea pigs and they shepherd herds of alpacas, which are grazed on the mountain slopes and in the forests. Each year, the families sell alpaca wool and meat to merchants, providing an essential household income.
“We thought [the wildcats] were bad animals,” resident Alicia Ccaico says. “We were losing our chickens and guinea pigs to the small cats in the village, and the pumas were killing our alpacas in the mountains.”
The women’s first resort was to an ancient Quechua cultural practice believed to promote coexistence between people and the big cat. “The puma is a vengeful animal, so whenever we speak about it, we call it compadre [godfather] because if it hears us say ‘puma’ even in the wind, it gets angry and kills more,” Caicco says.
Still, when these traditional methods failed, and conflict continued, men organized puma hunts and set snares for the smaller cats upon their return from the cities. The skins of dead “problem” felines were then hung on walls as trophies and incorporated into costumes traditionally worn in the dances during the carnival period between February and March.
Spending time in the village, Almeida would be exposed to the harsh realities of the conflict.
In 2021, Almeida began studying the feeding ecology and diurnal activity of wildcats in the forests that surround Licapa, a Quechua village two hours from Ayacucho. Setting camera traps on nearby trails, she soon captured images of the Peruvian desert cat, pumas and the first recorded Andean cat using a Polylepis forest.
“When I checked the photos, I was so happy that I was shouting, ‘Cat, cat, cat!’ into the wind,” she says.
However, her excitement was dashed when, not long after, she was shown the skin of a desert cat, which had been killed in retaliation for raiding a household’s guinea pigs — an important part of the local diet. The death of one of her research subjects hit home and marked a turning point in Almeida’s project. “It was a sad day. I wanted to study these animals, I didn’t want to see them killed,” she tells Mongabay.
Local women were also pleading with her to do something about the cats, especially the pumas. That’s what pushed her to start looking for a way to stop the conflict, she says.
Unsure of how to proceed, she reached out to Hurtado and Jim Sanderson of the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation (SWCCF) with an idea for a project to reduce human-wildlife conflict.
“We agreed to fund the project and suggested to her to focus on bringing Quechua women together as a conservation group. Merinia was fully on board,” Sanderson says.
Women and wildcats
In 2022, Almeida began a group called Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación (Quechua Women United for Conservation), holding monthly meetings where the women of Licapa could share their experiences and learn about the role of felines in the ecosystem.
“The talks made us realize we were also at fault, and that by caring for the cats and the forest, we’re caring for our other resources, like water,” Sandra Ayasca says.
Before long, the meetings had become a fixture of Licapa life, with more than 30 local women participating in the new conservation program. They often join Almeida in her fieldwork, assisting with camera traps. Besides being a Quechua-led project (instead of simply a Peruvian one), the activities have also given women a decentralized space not led by men, who typically are quite dominant in social affairs. It’s a women’s project, where they can gather, talk and strengthen community.
“It became a community really fast; the women were curious and enjoyed the fieldwork,” Almeida says. “It’s something different that they’ve never experienced, and they like it.”
As well as good fun, Almeida’s Indigenous background and gender have been central to her success.
“She’s a woman who speaks Quechua and is from Ayacucho, so she’s not an outsider. This gives her a huge advantage because human-wildlife conflict is all about dialogue and listening to the needs of local people,” Hurtado says.
To address the conflict with small cats was simple enough; chicken and guinea pig corrals were repaired with wire and wood or constructed anew, a straightforward measure that has reduced conflict. However, addressing puma attacks has required a different approach rooted in finding alternatives to grazing on the mountains and reducing pressures on the forest.
With the help of the SWCCF, the project obtained a variety of grass seeds resistant to the cold temperatures of the Andes, including rye (Lolium perenne) and bison grass (Hierochloe odorata) as well as forage oats (Avena sativa). Planted behind houses and on the outskirts of the village, the new pastures have been key in reducing, though not entirely eliminating, puma attacks, according to local people.
“We don’t need to take our alpacas into the mountains as much as before, so we don’t lose as many of them now,” Ayasca says.
Attuned to the cultural sensibilities of her people, Almeida uses each development as an opportunity to further cement the importance of the wildcats. Several walls in the village now featuring vibrant murals of women and wildcats and safety signs have been installed on dangerous roads benefitting both cats and children.
“I always tell them, ‘Remember, these things don’t come from me; these are gifts from the cats to you,’” she says.
The latest gift from wildcats to the community is the start of an alpaca wool textile cooperative where local women weave textiles for sale to fair trade buyers, boosting their economic empowerment and independence.
“When we embroider, we include our wildcats in the designs. The income is helping us buy groceries and educate our children,” Gregoria Paitan Arango says.
Hope in the high Andes
As Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación continues to grow and find equitable solutions to human-wildlife conflict with felines, the project has pioneered new ground in the community.
The focus on Indigenous women in conservation offers a rare example of an approach in a field and region where patriarchal attitudes are often deeply entrenched, according to Rocio Aluma Morales, a researcher at the University of Western Australia, who is unaffiliated with the project.
“Indigenous women’s perspectives are underrepresented in most scientific research, as well as in decision-making spaces on conservation issues and especially in the Andes,” Morales tells Mongabay by email. “So, this project’s approach is rare and is breaking down political and social barriers, along with inequalities in resource access, control, rights and decision-making participation. I hope it continues.”
For Almeida, there’s another reason for hope that coexistence between the community and wildcats will be long-lasting.
“Whatever activities we do, the women’s children are always close by, so the next generation is already participating in conservation in Licapa,” she says.
“Recently, I went up into the mountains to set a camera trap with one of the women and her 7-year-old boy. We were going to test it when the boy said, ‘No, I’ll do it,’ and he did and started to mimic an Andean cat,” Almedia says. “It’s moments like that that give me hope for the future.”
Banner image: Licapa resident Alicia Ccaico stands alongside a mural featuring her likeness and an Andean cat. Image courtesy of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación.
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Citations:
Ames-Martínez, F. N., Quispe-Melgar, H. R., & Renison, D. (2021). Conservation status assessment of the highest forests in the world: Polylepis flavipila forests as a case study. Neotropical Biodiversity, 7(1), 160–169. doi:10.1080/23766808.2021.1920295
Cuyckens, G. A. E., Christie, D. A., Domic, A. I., Malizia, L. R., & Renison, D. (2016). Climate change and the distribution and conservation of the world’s highest elevation woodlands in the South American Altiplano. Global and Planetary Change, 137, 79-87. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2015.12.010
Lucherini, M., Cruz, A., Fajardo Quispe, U., Iriarte Walton, A., Merino, M. J., & et al. (2017). El conflicto entre humanos y pequeños felinos andinos. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, 2, 377–387. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318250222_El_conflicto_entre_humanos_y_pequenos_felinos_andinos
Mazzolli, M. (2019). Reacción de comunidades rurales de la Cordillera Occidental de Perú en interacciones con el puma (Puma concolor), con y sin pérdida de animales domésticos. Revista Peruana de Biología, 26(4), 529-534. doi:10.15381/rpb.v26i4.17219
Caine, A. (2021). “Who Would Watch the Animals?”: Gendered Knowledge and Expert Performance Among Andean Pastoralists. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 43(1), 4-13. doi:10.1111/cuag.12261
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