Geoffroy's Cat SES First Year Report to the International Society of Zooculturalists

September 21, 2002

Lynn Culver, species Coordinator, Geoffroy's Cat Short-term Goals report for the first year
(1)  Begin identifying all existing Geoffroy's cats in North America and listing them in the studbook.culvers@voltage.net ; Colette Griffiths, Studbook keeper, coletteg@colubs.com ;  Kevin Chambers, Secretary  ZooACR@worldnet.att.net ;  and Len Davidson, Vice Chairman  Centari310MG@cs.com .  Because there was not a first year meeting, and because the majority of the MAC membership has joined just in the past few months, elections of officers will be delayed.

breeding

This process began in December  2001 and over 100 felines, some living, some historic to the living population, have been either identified or located for addition to the retired AZA studbook.

Several former breeding facilities have cooperated with the Species Coordinator in providing back round genetic information to enable us to paint an accurate picture of the size and diversity of much of the current captive gene pool.    Breeding records for another North American facility should be forthcoming shortly.  Some facilities have only been of limited assistance in documenting the pedigrees of their stock, due to poor record keeping.

While the results of the initial survey of the captive genetic base within North America shows promise, this species is in need of careful, selective management.  The captive breeding population located by the Species Coordinator is held mainly at seven private facilities, of which five of these facilities are actively involved in breeding programs. Two new facilities have acquired potential breeding offspring and hopefully will be contributing to the captive gene pool in a few years.

In reviewing the pedigrees of the living captive population several dominate bloodlines appear, including descendants of a single male born at the Sacramento Zoo.  Descendants of this male named Sampson, are now found in 6 out of the 7 earlier referenced breeding facilities.

In addition to that bloodline, there are eight felines that were imported from European collections in the past decade that have been located,  as well as descendents of wild caught felines that were imported into the US in the late 70's, and a couple of South American wild-caught imports from the early 1990's.

Unfortunately, examination the European studbook records revealed the 3 females imported from English zoos held by the Geoffroy's Cat Species Coordinator are actually 12 years of age and the English male is 14 years of age.   This fact illustrated the importance of good record keeping to help the management of a species in captivity.  Two of these females have been observed breeding, but one has failed to conceive so far.  The other female delivered a litter of 3 offspring, but they were promptly abandoned by the mother.  Two are still alive and are currently being raised by a foster domestic feline.  The other female imported from a German zoo did become pregnant this past summer but unfortunately, she ate her offspring.  Her pregnancy verified the fecundity of both her and the male she was bred to, both previously unproven individuals. Efforts to identify shortcomings and improve husbandry conditions for a future pregnancy are underway.

One older imported South American wild-caught female was located at a non-breeding facility earlier this year by the Species Coordinator and transferred to a facility with a proven success record.  This female never produced living offspring at it's former location, but she has been matched up with a younger male at her present facility and breeding activity has been observed. 

Dr. William Swanson, of the Cincinnati Zoo, is holding a limited amount of frozen semen collected from wild Geoffroy's Cats in South America that could add founders to the genetic base.  It is hoped that the SES can play a cooperative role by providing female Geoffroy's Cats to participate in this research.

The ability of private holders to expand their holding space and the possibilities of adding new holders for this species greatly enhances the outlook for maintaining a self-sustaining North American captive population.  Careful expansion the current captive population with emphasis on maximizing gene pool diversity is the primary focus of the Geoffroy's Cat MAC at this point in time. Nine litters of Geoffroy's born at 4 different facilities have been reported this year.

(2)  Establish the Management Advisory Committee and elect officers, a species coordinator, and a studbook keeper.

Current officers are  Lynn Culver, Species Coordinator and Chairman,

(3) Establish guidelines and methods to assist facilities in finding appropriate mates.

At this time the MAC members are still in the process of gathering captive gene pool information, needed to base guidelines on, and researchers and advisors have only joined it the past few months.  Some suggestions on offspring acquisitions for future pairings have been made by the species coordinator to new Geoffroy's holders.

(4) Identify all current in-situ and ex-situ research projects involving Geoffroy's cats and explore their needs, financial and otherwise. A  project  under Gerald Zuercher in cooperation with Sunset Zoo about "mammalian predator community" in Paraguay was located.  No further information has been gained at this time. Zooculturists to the Geoffroy's Cat SES is being held by this organization, and is available for any funding needs that the MAC identifies.   www.geoffroyscatses.org and  www.geoffroyscats.com .  These websites are still undergoing construction.

(5) Identify budgetary needs and establish a budget.

With the MAC still in it's start-up phase, there has not been any financial needs - all activity expenses have been donated by MAC members.  The SPARKS software for the SES Geoffroy's Studbook was donated by Robert Bean of International Zoological Research and Exchange.  The development and upkeep of the Geoffroy's Cat website design has been donated by webmaster Deborah Ash.  The purchase of the two domain names and the hosting service of the two Geoffroy's Cat websites has been donated to the SES by Bob Elliot.   $350 donated by the International Society of

(6) Identify methods for achieving budgetary needs.

Possible ideas are still being developed at this point.  The creation of a web site devoted to the SES and a page outlining donation information is hoped to generate some funding for the future projects of this MAC. The SES website addresses are

(7) Establish recommended permanent ID methods

At this point in time, emphasis has not been placed upon ID, as the breeding population in located in stable facilities and transfers are not occurring.

(8) Set a date and location for an annual meeting of the Geoffroy's Cat Management Advisory Committee where members present the work/accomplishments of the prior year and plan work/research for the upcoming year.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Geoffroys  has served as a communication vehicle which has allowed the MAC members to communicate with others and will suffice as a cyber meeting place for the foreseeable future.  Future goals for this group will be discussed by internet during the fall season after a complete review of the yearly report is made by the MAC members.Other goals for Geoffroy's Cat SES program report:
(1) Serve as a source for current husbandry practices and special health concerns or considerations.www.geoffroyscats.com  and www.geoffroyscatses.org as well as hosting services at no charge. The website is still under development and content will be expanded shortly.

No date has been set, as the studbook keeper was unable to attend the Annual FCF conference which was one possible location proposed, and none of the officers were able to attend this year's annual ISZ conference. 

Currently the internet yahoo list

The collection of husbandry information about this species is an ongoing project and will be included in the updated studbook when it is published.  Further future development of the SES website content will add sections on  Captive Husbandry Studies and  Scientific Findings.

The Geoffroy's Cat SES was donated two internet domain names -  

(2) Determine the validity of sub-species from a DNA perspective.

Determining the best route for the long-term health of this feline species involves the question of how best to manage the captive gene pool, and considering the small size of captive population management by sub-species delineation is not a viable option.  This decision is further supported by the July 15, 1999 paper published in Molecular Ecology,  entitled Disparate phylogeographic patterns of molecular genetic variation in four closely related South American small cat species. The study involved the Kodkod, Pampas Cat, Geoffroy's Cat and Oncilla, and was performed by Dr. Warren Johnson and Dr. Stephen O' Brian at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD, as well as others.  They collected tissue samples from these four species of small cats and compared them for genetic distance estimates comparable to inter-specific values between other ocelot lineage species.  In this study, several commonly accepted subspecies partitions were affirmed for L. colocolo, (pampas cat) but not for Oncifelis geoffroyi (Geoffroy's Cat) The following statement is found under the heading of  "Implications for taxonomy and conservation of genetic variation,   " . . . we failed to affirm the hypothesis that there are four subspecies of O. geoffroyi, which appears to have had no recent, significant barriers to gene flow and little geographical subdivision".  

(3) Membership in the Geoffroy's Cat Management Advisory Committee

Currently the membership of the Geoffroy's Cat MAC stands at 21 individuals. There are four researchers signed up, as well as an advisor from the Felid TAG.  We have seven holders of the species, some of these are breeders,  who have joined.  Other members are interested parties and potential holders of the species.