With a wild population of less than 2,500, the endangered Andean mountain cat is as rare as it is cute. Now, the fuzzy feline is under threat from a mining project that could destroy its already-diminished habitat.
What's happening?
The Andean cat lives at high altitudes in small pockets of the Andes Mountains. In 2020, researchers recorded an Andean cat population in Chile's Rocín River Valley for the first time.
This population's habitat sits atop a rich copper deposit, as Mongabay reported, and a Canadian mining company plans to start drilling for the mineral over the next two years.
Researchers fear that the project could upset the fragile ecosystem and further reduce the cat's population.
"It is a rare species with a low population, which also makes it highly sensitive to changes in its habitat," Rodrigo Villalobos Aguirre, the director of the NGO Seeking Andean Wild Cats, told Mongabay.
Why is mining concerning?
Mining is a land- and water-intensive way of retrieving materials from the earth. However, companies need minerals such as lithium to create batteries for things like electric cars.
Los Andes Copper Ltd., the owner of the Rocín River Valley project, says that the copper it mines will fuel the clean energy transition. Mining projects raise the complicated question of how to protect wildlife and promote biodiversity in the short term while creating an energy infrastructure free from the dirty fuels that will warm our planet and contribute to even greater habitat loss in the long term.
This mining project is particularly concerning because the Andean cat holds deep cultural significance for many local communities, as Mongabay noted.
Plus, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, which maintains the Red List of Threatened Species, identified mining as the greatest risk to the Andean cat's survival.
"The impact of lithium exploration and mining in the core area of the distribution range of the Andean Cat has not been assessed yet but could have extremely negative impacts not only on the Andean cat but also on other high Andean species," an IUCN report noted.
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Definitely 👍 What's being done to protect the Andean cat?
Residents of Chile's Putaendo community have filed a petition to declare the river basin a protected area. This designation would prevent industrial expansion into the area, as the LatinAmerican Post wrote.
Meanwhile, groups like the Andean Cat Alliance are working to raise awareness of the beloved cats while promoting their research and conservation.
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