The first time Mwezi Mugerwa saw the African golden cat, he didn\u2019t know what it was.<\/p>\n
While reviewing camera trap footage at Uganda\u2019s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, the conservation biologist spotted an unfamiliar creature around twice the size of a domestic cat in the grainy black-and-white footage.<\/p>\n
None of his colleagues could identify it; \u201cbut, when I talked to the hunters and communities who lived around the park, they knew the species,\u201d Mugerwa recalls.<\/p>\n
Known as Embaka in the local language, the \u201ccryptic\u201d golden cat was often caught accidentally in forest snares.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was really concerning for me \u2014 that we may lose this species before we even get to know about it,\u201d says Mugerwa.<\/p>\n
Over the past 16 years, Mugerwa has dedicated his career to \u201cAfrica\u2019s least known, least understood, least studied big cat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Found in dense tropical forests across Central and Western Africa, the species is so elusive that the last IUCN assessment \u2014 over a decade old \u2014 has no population estimates, and in all his years of fieldwork, Mugerwa has only managed a fleeting glimpse of the African golden cat three times with his own eyes.<\/p>\n
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world\u2019s largest environmental network of government and society organizations, tracks threatened wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really, really difficult to see in the wild,\u201d says Mugerwa, who won the Indianapolis Prize Emerging Conservationist Award earlier this year for his work on the species.<\/p>\n
But, realising that accurately counting the big cats was the first step to protecting them, he set out to conduct the first population census across the species\u2019 range, expected to be published next year.<\/p>\n
Counting cats<\/p>\n
Mugerwa knew that gathering data on the African golden cat wasn\u2019t something he could do on his own.<\/p>\n
So, in 2019, he founded the African Golden Cat Conservation Alliance (AGCCA), a network of 46 conservationists across 19 countries.<\/p>\n
Together, they launched a standardised camera trap survey across the cat\u2019s suspected range, supported by funding from the National Geographic Society.<\/p>\n
But manually reviewing thousands of images from 30 sites across 19 countries \u2014 the largest camera trap grid for any African wildlife species, says Mugerwa \u2014 \u201cwas really, really painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, US-headquartered nonprofit Panthera, another of Mugerwa\u2019s collaborators, was developing an AI algorithm that could quickly sort the images and identify individual cats based on their unique coat patterns, similar to how tiger stripes are used like fingerprints.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really important, because now we can speak to number and density,\u201d says Mugerwa, adding that without AI, distinguishing individual cats would be nearly impossible due to their small size and subtle markings.<\/p>\n
Preliminary data suggest the species exists at low densities \u2014 even in protected habitats.<\/p>\n
In Uganda and Gabon, for example, surveys found just 16 individuals per 100 square kilometers.<\/p>\n
The surveys have also revealed the true impact of poaching: in areas with hunting restrictions, Mugerwa says cat populations were up to 50% higher, with wider distribution.<\/p>\n
The study has also observed that while the cats are active both day and night, many are strictly nocturnal \u2014 likely to avoid human activity during the day, he adds.<\/p>\n
Community action<\/p>\n
Establishing population numbers was just the first step. Early in his research, Mugerwa realized that hunting was the cat\u2019s primary threat.<\/p>\n
In East Africa, where Mugerwa is based, the African golden cat is rarely the target of hunters.<\/p>\n
But bushmeat snares, set for pigs and antelopes, are indiscriminate, often catching other species unintentionally.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Mugerwa received reports of 80 golden cats caught in snares in three Ugandan forests, 88% of which were accidental.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are dealing with a bushmeat crisis: the level of hunting ongoing in this forest is unsustainable and out of control,\u201d he says, adding: \u201cThe species is being pushed to the edge of extinction in many of its range countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
To combat the cat\u2019s biggest threat, Mugerwa went directly to the residents, creating Embaka: the first community-based anti-poaching conservation project focused on the African golden cat.<\/p>\n
Working with over 8,000 families across the cat\u2019s range, including Gabon, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda, the project engages local communities \u2014 many of whom are former poachers \u2014 to deploy camera traps and report sightings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have learned a lot from local communities; the range expansion, for instance, some of that data comes from hunters,\u201d says Mugerwa.<\/p>\n
Embaka offers incentives like dental care and livestock support to encourage communities to \u201cspeak out against hunting\u201d and protect the forest ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Bringing reformed hunters on board not only reduces the threat the cats will face from hunting, but it also \u201cimproves the relationship between the African golden cat and the communities,\u201d says Mugerwa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also allows the local communities to own and to be part of the camera trap grid, which is really beautiful to see,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time Mwezi Mugerwa saw the African golden cat, he didn\u2019t know what it was. While reviewing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-274085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}