Education
Welcome to Felidae Conservation Fund's Education section. Our Felidae Species page below includes interesting information and facts on all felid species, on their natural habitats, and the challenges they face for sustaining healthy populations. This page will also offer modules to test your knowledge of felid species. Visit our CAT Aware page to learn about our program for K-12 schools that is currently in development. We believe children are an important audience to include in conservation messaging and that children who grow up with a sensitivity to the environment, and its fauna will better understand the benefits to human beings, and the significance of our felid species in the eco-systems of the world.
We also share important information and instructions on hiking and recreating in mountain lion habitat, so that we can co-exist evenly with these magnificent cats for decades to come.
Felidae is working on an exciting and revolutionary model for K12 schools that we hope to implement in a select group of California schools within one year. We are drawing on the experience of the initiators of the CAT project in Cle Elum, Washington, where an education project for children has been underway since 2001.
This collaborative effort will serve as a model for similar research in other areas where human growth is increasingly confronting native wildlife. This project serves as an excellent educational archetype for integrating wildlife science, conservation, education, and technology, with community planning and participation. Read More.
To see the latest news, updates and images from the Bay Area Puma Project, check out the BAPP interactive web portal at www.bapp.org. This site, still in its early stages, is where all things relating to the project converge: news, blogs, discussion, photos, videos, and (coming soon) an interactive puma tracking map showing (slightly delayed) location data for the project's study cats. One of the unique aspects of the Bay Area Puma Project is the degree to which it connects the science to the lay public, making it understandable, meaningful and fun. BAPP.ORG is the central conduit for making this happen. We hope you'll visit the site, and get more involved in the effort to preserve wild pumas in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Felidae is also developing an educational online/mobile game, called Pumatrackers, that lets players take on the role of either a wildlife biologist tracking and capturing wild pumas, or a wild puma trying to survive and flourish in an increasingly fragmented habitat. The strategy and excitement of the game is what will draw people in, but it also provides a realistic educational message about the challenges posed to puma populations due to human development. So players will be able to have a lot of fun, and at the same time learn about ecosystem science and conservation issues. We hope people will come away from the experience with a deeper understanding of what is happening to the critical keystone species in our local habitats, and will feel an increased sense of urgency about helping to make a positive difference.
Felidae has partnered with UC Davis to create the California Puma Sighting System. This site, which will be coming online very soon, will let people report sightings of pumas and bobcats throughout California. The information will be stored in a database, and made available at the sight through searches and interactive maps. This input from the public will help us better understand the interactions between puma and human populations, and will be another way for people to get involved and personally contribute to this important issue.
The Felidae cat family taxonomy has been the subject of intense debate in years past. Several classification schemes have been proposed, dividing the cat family into anywhere from 2 to twenty-three genera, with the number of felid species ranging from 36 to 39. Fortunately, the expanding field of molecular genetics is rapidly evolving to explain and resolve the questions of felid phylogeny once and for all. Much of the past confusion has stemmed from the very similar morphology of cat species, despite the fact that felid species have the greatest range in body size and weight of all carnivore species, ranging from a seven-hundred pound tiger to a two-pound rusty-spotted cat. Read More.
Working to spread awareness about our American lion, the Oregon Cougar Action Team (OreCat) is dedicated to the preservation of Oregons cougar and the biosystem the cougar sustains. They are a 501(c)3 non-profit educational foundation working to help people make better decisions about cougars, promote open spaces for them, and create better wilderness management plans. OreCat offers educational presentations and tools for free to Oregonians, schools, communities and Churches to help citizens, livestock and agriculture enterprises live fear free with cougars as our Native Nations have done for thousands of years. Read more about them here.
Top right photo courtesy of David Tharp
Middle right photo courtesy of Brian Jansen
Bottom right photo courtesy of Cheryl Gray
Bottom left photo courtesy of Trish Carney
