An adorable and incredibly rare Andean mountain cat was caught on a remote trail camera recently. This is exciting news, considering there have only been 10 recorded sightings in the last 25 years.
The Andean mountain cat is a relatively tiny wild cat, weighing only up to 12 pounds. Native to the Andes, the animals survive in extremely harsh and challenging environments, and are considered to be sacred to locals.
The legendary cat was only known to science by a couple of photographs prior to 1998. Since then, researchers have begun studying the endangered cats more closely, in part by using remote trail cameras like the ones seen here. Fewer than 1,500 individuals exist in the wild, and only at extremely high elevations — in some regions, over 13,000 feet. This makes studying the animals quite difficult, and much is still to be discovered about them.
Even conservationists that have dedicated their lives to saving the cats have never seen one. “Most staff members have never laid eyes on an Andean cat — it is so scarce and elusive that it is almost a ghost,” says Dr. Rocio Palacios of the Andean Cat Alliance. Scientists do know that the cat’s preferred prey is the viscacha, a large rodent found in rocky areas of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru.
This unique cat is facing a variety of threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation from mining and water extraction; hunting, diseases, and loss of prey.
The rare cat was also recently caught on camera in Santiago, the captial of Chile. It is quite rare for this cat to be seen in such a populated area.
Video:
Here’s another video of the rare cat that was filmed a few years ago on another trail cam:
? A very rare Andean cat stretching out in front of wildlife cam ?
And another:
