17 February 2023

Roundup of a few 2022 Cat Trips

Here’s a summary of a few cat-focused trips that I did in 2022 including searches for Andean Mountain Cat (miss), Colocolo (miss), Kodkod (hit), Serval (miss, then a hit), African Golden Cat (miss), Black-footed Cat (miss), Jaguarundi (hit), and Geoffrey’s Cat (hit).  Hopefully my experiences and learnings from some failures will be useful to other felinophiles in the future.

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2022 Cat Trip Roundup

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ChrisD
Enthusiastic felineophile and photographer from Colorado.
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7 Comments

  • 17 February 2023
    Jon Hall

    Thanks Chris. Great report and photos. Thank you too for expanding my vocabulary with “felinophile”. Glad to hear Kodkods are a bit easier to see on Chiloe again than they seemed to be a few years back. What’s the big eared rodent sitting on the rock (photo opposite the Viscacha) at the very end? I am a rodentophile! Though that word sounds a bit too much like an exterminator’s favourite spray maybe.

  • 17 February 2023
    ChrisD

    Thanks Jon! I believe the rodent is a Bolivian Big-Eared Mouse. It was along the short trails at the Las Cuevas area (as was the Viscacha).

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  • 18 February 2023
    Sandra H

    May I ask where exactly at the deception valley lodge you found the brown hyena?

    • 18 February 2023
      ChrisD

      Hi Sandra – The brown hyena came to the lodge at sunrise every morning to drink from the water hole immediately in front of the dining/pool area. I think that my picture in the report was taken from the area of the pool.

  • 21 February 2023
    Lennartv

    Great reports! Being a fellow ‘felinophile’ the bit about Black-footed Cat is particularly useful to me as I had been wondering why there haven’t been any recent sightings. I will also pay close attention to the rainfal in South-Africa! Should you want to go for it someday and wouldn’t mind some company send me a message for sure! It’s easy through my website naturebylennart.com.

    Too bad you didn’t succeed on all your goals but you got some good ones in the end. Your report of the Kodkod at Tepuhueico is also of interest to me as I saw one myself in 2019 there, which felt like it was a very lucky sighting since I saw it during the day with very little time to spend there. Back then I found it impossible to get into contact with the lodge so we just went there by ourselves one afternoon. I am not sure if this has improved much, but your local guide probably helped in that regard. I’d be happy to go for another round as my sighting was quite bad and I wouldn’t mind getting some pictures. Your report certainly sounds hopeful! We saw Darwin’s Fox quite easily at Tantauco, but that species remains quite unpredictable apparently.

    Cheers,

    Lennart

  • 25 February 2023
    Stuart Chapman

    Thanks Chris for the summary of your trips. I like the format and will copy for 2023. Hope to see you on another cat trip sometime!

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