OUR SUPPORTERS

These include:
British Airways Assisting Nature Conservation.
Carnaud Metal Box.
The Co-op.
Hertz (UK).
The Rainforest Cafe.
David Shepherd Conservation Foundation.
TACA Airlines.
HS Jackson

RTEC is seeking sponsors for its project in Belize. Businesses and corporations who are interested in supporting wildlife conservation, please follow the link LiFeline.

WILD CATS IN DANGER

It's not just tigers! Lynx, golden cat, ocelot, margay. Just 4 of the 28 species of small cat worldwide.

The big cats, such as leopard and tiger, attract media attention and funding. But the smaller species are frequently ignored. Many of them, just like the big cats, are under threat, and some are critically endangered. All are on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) Annex A or B, and the IUCN Global Cat Species Vulnerability Rankings list 9 small cats in the two most threatened categories.

The world's most endangered cat is not the tiger. It's a small cat - the Iberian lynx.

THREATS TO WILD CATS

* Habitat loss. This is the most serious. The majority of cats are forest dwellers, and most live in tropical rainforest. Protected reserves only occupy a fraction of their ranges, so conflict between cats and humans is bound to increase.

* Persecution by farmers. In many areas cats are shot on sight.

* Killing for sport, food, and traditional medicines.

* The illegal pet trade. Young kittens are captured and sold as "pets". Most of these die. In some areas hunting for this trade is having a marked effect on wild cat numbers.

* They are killed for their pelts. Although falling demand for spotted cat skins, and enforcement of legislation, have led to a decline in the fur trade from its peak in the 1970's and 80's, cats are still taken to satisfy home demand in their range countries, and for illegal trade.

Wild cat numbers are declining all the time. For some species it may soon be too late.

RTEC is currently undergoing a change in policy, but was founded in 1987 with three main aims:

To establish a conservation breeding centre for small cats. Breeding in captivity is a vital tool of conservation. Captive animals are an insurance in case a species becomes extinct in the wild, and a source of new genetic material to replenish depleted wild populations. Study of captive cats provides baseline data for biologists researching them in the wild. We have bred successfully from the cats at RTEC since 1988.

To study the behavioural, nutritional and reproductive needs of cats to promote the highest standards of care in captivity. The results of our studies have been published internationally in zoological journals.

To promote the conservation of cats in the wild and the protection of their habitat. Since 1989 RTEC has supported preservation of wild cat habitat in Central America. We are now concentrating our efforts on this aspect of our work and on field research.

We never sell any of our cats.

We do not believe it is ethical to give endangered animals any monetary value. Surplus cats are sent on loan, or in exchange, to approved collections where they can contribute to breeding programmes.

Our Enclosures

They are spacious and thickly planted with trees, bushes, bamboos, palms and vines to mimic the cats' natural habitat. Our animals have a network of logs and branches to climb on and access at all times to indoor accommodation, heated in winter.

Diet

Our cats are fed on whole carcasses with fur and feathers, approximating to the type of prey they would catch in the wild: mice, rats, chicks, guinea pigs, pigeons, rabbits, pheasants, chicken and occasionally fish.

Husbandry

Because we are not open to the public our cats have the privacy needed in order to breed and raise their young. Our philosophy is that natural is best. We rely on observation of animals' behaviour rather than high-tech monitoring and interference; our cats are left to get on with it. Over the past ten years our success rate in breeding and rearing young has been 75%.