Alan Rabinowitz

Panthera

The impact of extensive changes in land use and climate on species has led to an increasing focus on large-scale conservation planning. However, these plans are often static conservation prescriptions set against a backdrop of rapidly changing environments, which suggests that large-scale information on threats can improve the func-tionality of pla...

Umbrella species are employed as conservation short- cuts for the design of reserves or reserve networks. However, empirical data on the effectiveness of umbrellas is equivocal, which has prevented more widespread application of this conservation strategy. We perform a novel, large- scale evaluation of umbrella species by assessing the potential um...

Umbrella species are employed as conservation short-cuts for the design of reserves or reserve networks. However, empirical data on the effectiveness of umbrellas is equivocal, which has prevented more widespread application of this conservation strategy. We perform a novel large-scale evaluation of umbrella species by assessing the potential umbre...

I n the 1990s, a psychology professor at Harvard University asked students to watch a one-minute video of a basketball game and to count how many passes were made only by the team wearing white, ignoring the team in black. Halfway through the video a student wearing a full-body gorilla suit walks into the scene, looks at the camera, and pounds his...

A fter my time in Belize, the Wildlife Conservation Society hired me as a staff research scientist for their international conservation program. George Schaller and others were pleased with what I had accomplished in Belize with so few resources, so they left the door open for me to choose my next project. George invited me to his home in Connectic...

A fter an initial survey throughout the country, I selected a site in southern Belize for the jaguar study. With intact access roads, a few abandoned shacks from a small timber operation that was winding down, and a small Mayan community nearby, this wild, relatively pristine forest called the Cockscomb Basin was surrounded by mountains stretching...

The jaguar is one of the most mysterious and least-known big cats of the world. The largest cat in the Americas, it has survived an onslaught of environmental and human threats partly because of an evolutionary history unique among wild felines, but also because of a power and indomitable spirit so strong, the jaguar has shaped indigenous cultures...

The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest cat in the New World and faces threatsincluding direct persecution, habitat loss, and decimation of prey populations. Typically,conservation approaches focus on individual sites and do not account for larger landscapedynamics over the range of the jaguar. Furthermore, conservation programs tend toremain int...

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide important tools for developing comprehensive and effective conservation strategies throughout the entire range of a species. Range-wide conservation strategies have typically used GIS to identify and prioritize populations across a species' distribution. We propose the addition of corridors to these rang...

Definition of source sites. (0.08 MB DOC)

Estimating financial costs for effective protection and monitoring at source sites, and present expenditures. (0.06 MB DOC)

Source sites listed by country. (0.07 MB XLS)

Large, wide-ranging carnivores face greater threats and more persistent declines than most other mammal species. An important conservation tool for these carnivores has been range-wide priority-setting exercises that have helped identify critical threats and key populations. However, such exercises often fail to identify functional movement corrido...

The cougar is one of the most beautiful, enigmatic, and majestic animals in the Americas. Eliciting reverence for its grace and independent nature, it also triggers fear when it comes into contact with people, pets, and livestock or competes for hunters’ game. Mystery, myth, and misunderstanding surround this remarkable creature. The cougar’s r...

Five individuals of four civet species were captured and followed by radiotelemetry in a mosaic of dry tropical forest in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand. Observations were made on a fifth, arboreal species which was never captured. Radio-collared civets used overall areas ranging from 3.1 to 17 km2 with average monthly ranges from 0.7...

As part of a national strategy for recovering tiger populations, the Myanmar Government recently proposed its first and the world’s largest tiger reserve in the Hukaung Valley, Kachin State. During November 2002–June 2004, camera-traps were used to record tigers, identify individuals, and, using capture–recapture approaches, estimate density in the...

Cambridge Core - Ecology and Conservation - People and Wildlife, Conflict or Co-existence? - edited by Rosie Woodroffe

Collection-based institutions—zoos, aquariums, museums, and botanical gardens—exhibit wildlife and thus have a special connection with nature. Many of these institutions emphasize a mission of conserva- tion, and, undeniably, they do contribute directly to conservation education and conservation science. They present an exceptional opportunity for...

Myanmar is among the most biologically diverse countries in mainland Southeast Asia. Ill contrast to its neighbors, large areas of Myanmar's forest cover remain intact, providing a unique opportunity, to conserve biodiversity, within protected areas. High levels of deforestation, unrestricted bunting. and destructive agricultural practices have res...

International conservation planning at the end of the twentieth century is dominated by coarse-filter, supra-organismal approaches to conservation that may be insufficient to conserve certain species such as the jaguar (Panthera onca). If we are to retain broadly distributed species into the next century, we need to plan explicitly for their surviv...

The Sumatran rhinoceros has been declining in numbers for more than a century, primarily due to bunting and to loss of its habitat as land is converted to other uses. Only in the last quarter century has the international community made concerted efforts to reverse this decline. However, government officials, international funding agencies, and con...

In May 1998, an expedition into northern Myanmar obtained detailed descriptive data on a new species of muntjac called the leaf deer, first discovered on a survey the previous year and characterized primarily by its diagnostic DNA compared to other muntjac species. Weights, measurements, and physical data were obtained from 12 freshly killed leaf d...

A new species of barking deer (Muntiacus spp.) is described from northern Myanmar. Diagnostic DNA character data are presented along with preliminary information on morphology, distribution, and phylogenetic relationships. This discovery contributes significantly to our knowledge of this poorly studied group and highlights the importance of continu...

Myanmar may be home to some of the largest remaining populations of Indo-Chinese tigers. A special tiger team will spend the next three years counting the cats there.

The disappearance of large vertebrates in the tropical belt may be the next biological insult of the global extinction crisis. Large predators and their prey are at particular risk in Asia, where they are threatened by poaching and habitat loss. To facilitate the best use of limited conservation resources, we created an objective, ecology‐based met...

During 1996 and 1997, data on the status of selected mammal species were collected from a remote region of North Myanmar. Of the 21 species discussed in this paper, the black muntjac, stone marten and blue sheep are new records for the country. One species, the leaf muntjac, has never been described. At least three species that once inhabited the r...

The recent reintroduction of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) to Yellowstone signifies a constructive change, but the overall record in the United States on large carnivore conservation remains poor. Many developing countries are determined to do a better job of conserving predators, including their critical habitat and prey populations. We describe cur...

Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society 43(1):23-26

Tamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary in the Upper Chindwin district of Myanmar could be one of the most important remaining sites for wildlife in the country. Until recently, insurgency problems prevented officials of the Myanmar Forest Department visiting the area or carrying out any form of management. Yet the sanctuary is essentially intact and, with the...

In 1992 the discovery of a new bovid, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, in Vietnam led to speculation that the species also occurred in adjacent parts of Laos. This paper describes a survey in January 1994, which confirmed the presence of P. ngethinhensis in Laos, although in low densities and with a patchy distribution. The paper also presents new informat...

Journal: Siam Trade 4(40):89-91

Ninety-two fecal samples were collected from leopards (Panthera pardus, n = 54), tigers (P. tigris, n = 19), and leopard cats (Felis bengalensis, n = 3) in Huai Kha Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand; four samples that may have come from clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) or Asian golden cats (Felis temminicki) were identified as from small to medium c...

From 1987 to 1991, tiger Panthera tigris corbetti presence was investigated in 25 national parks and 13 wildlife sanctuaries, comprising 49% and 58% of Thailand's protected land area in these respective categories. Tigers were present in only 58% of the surveyed areas. Where tigers were present, an arbitrary density of 1 tiger/100 km2 was modified...

Small mammal live-trapping was carried out in a dry tropical forest mosaic in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, central Thailand. Trapping was done in two forest types in three seasons. Maxomys surijer was the dominant species in both plots. The three most abundant species in each plot accounted for > 90% of all captures. Community structure, den...

An assessment of carnivore species richness and food habits was carried out in a 100 km2 area of dry tropical forest in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand. Twenty-one carnivore species of five families were found to be feeding on at least 34 mammal species, as well as birds, lizards, snakes, crabs, fish, insects, and fruits. Forty-four pe...

Three males and one female leopard cat in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, had overall home ranges from 1.5-7.5 km2 with core areas of 0.7-2 km2. A female leopard cat utilized an area of 6.6 km2 over 13 months while a male leopard cat, who shifted ranges, used 7.5 km2 over 3.5 months. The cats were active 50% of the time and displayed arrhythmic...

Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society 38(2):99-117

Transect and quadrat surveys were used to assess mammal species richness and relative abundance of small mammals in the Cockscomb Basin of Belize. The resulting mammal list contains eight orders, 25 families, and 55 species. Numbers of nonvolant species were similar to those of several other neotropical areas. Species richness of arboreal species w...

There has never been a thorough survey of Taiwan's clouded leopard population, and some believe it may no longer survive there. The author conducted a preliminary survey in 1986 and discovered that the last reported sighting of the species was in 1983.

The clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa has already disappeared from part of its range in southern Asia; it is classified as vulnerable by IUCN and is on Appendix I of CITES. Little is known about this secretive forest-dweller anywhere in its range, and the sparse information needs to be augmented so that effective conservation measures may be taken...

In conjunction with an ecological study of jaguars in the Cockscomb Basin of Belize, Central America, fecal samples from jaguars (Panthera onca), jaguarundis (Felis yagouaroundi), ocelots (Felix pardalis), and pumas (Felix concolor) were examined for parasite products (eggs, larvae, and oocysts). Of the 45 samples examined, 39 (86.7%) were positive...

Five adult male Jaguars and a translocated subadult female Jaguar were captured and followed by radio-telemetry in Cockscomb Basin, Belize. One adult male Jaguar, two resident female Jaguars, and a Puma were followed only by their tracks. Radio-collared males maintained overlapping ranges of 28–40 km2, while resident females moved in minimum areas...

Healthy adult male Panthera onca can range close to livestock without causing problems. Prior injuries sustained by problems jaguars and poor management of livestock may influence jaguar predation on livestock. Translocation of problem jaguars is probably not feasible. -from Author

Rabinowitz A. R. & Tuttle M. D., 1982: A test of the validity of two currently used methods of determining bat prey preferences. Acta theriol., 27, 21: 283—293 [With 3 Tables & 3 Figs.] Direct field observations were made of foraging gray bat (Myotis grisescens, Howell 1909) over an east Tennessee Reservoir. Conclusions from these observations diff...

Bat Research News 19(4):95

Bat Research News 19(4):95

Bibliogr. s. 353-357

Dubbed the Indiana Jones of wildlife science by The New York Times, Alan Rabinowitz has devoted—and risked—his life to protect nature’s great endangered mammals. He has journeyed to the remote corners of the earth in search of wild things, weathering treacherous terrain, plane crashes, and hostile governments. Life in the Valley of Death reco...