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25
years of Cat News
With this issue, we celebrate
No 50 of Cat News, the Cat Specialist Group’s newsletter!
Cat News was launched in July 1984 with a summary of
the first international review of the status of wild
cats at a workshop in Kanha National Park in central
India. The meeting brought together 20 members of the
Cat Specialist Group from around the world, with 35
observers and invitees, including directors and senior
staff of India’s 15 tiger reserves and other conservation
areas. Group members unable to be present sent reports
and papers. The aim was to provide a basis for the status
survey and conservation action plan, which was published
by IUCN in 1996 as “Wild Cats”, compiled and edited
by Kristin Nowell and Peter Jackson.
The format of the first
issue of Cat News was simple, with flexible numbers
of pages to report on Cat Specialist Group activities,
information of IUCN activities relevant to cat conservation,
and news about cats and cat studies. The 10th issue,
in 1989, introduced a magazine style with a photo of
a cat on the cover, and the Cat Specialist Group icon
of a silhouetted lion, a small cat and a cheetah. Cat
News was available for non-members who subscribed to
“Friends of the Cat Group”. Over time photos were introduced
in black and white. The style remained until issue No
41 in 2004 appeared in real magazine form with colour
illustrations.
The current issue, No
50 brings a new, modernised look. We are very grateful
to Barbara Surber for designing the new layout, and
to Patrick Meier for his support. But not only has the
appearance changed, we have also formalised the submission
and publication process. Cat News has now five defined
categories of articles: original contributions, short
communications, news from around the world, from our
partners, and the forum. Original contributions present
papers relevant to cat conservation up to four printed
pages. Short communications report interesting field
observations on a single page. These two categories
are now subject to a formal review process.
It is not our intention
to transform Cat News into a full-grown scientific journal;
it remains a newsletter of an IUCN/SSC specialist group,
and news will continue to be the most prominent articles.
As a matter of fact, we would welcome more contributions
of this kind from our Members and Friends! However,
as an increasing number of manuscripts are submitted,
and as papers published in Cat News get more and more
cited in other works, we must care about the scientific
quality of articles printed in our newsletter. Alan
Rabinowitz, our first forum author, addresses exactly
this question on the following page. Cat News
also offers an opportunity to young colleagues to get
experience in publishing papers; and for this, clear
guidelines and a formal peer review process are helpful.
The Cat News guidelines to authors can be downloaded
as a PDF from the Cat Specialist Group website www.catsg.org/catnews.
But bear in mind that we still appreciate articles submitted
by old hands in cat conservation!
The production of a full-colour
magazine like Cat News is not cheap. Our publisher,
Stämpfli Publikationen AG in Bern, Switzerland, offers
us special conditions as a highly appreciated contribution
to cat conservation, but an online or electronically
distributed digital newsletter would still be cheaper
and save high mailing costs. But when we talked to a
number of members and friends of the Cat Specialist
Group, most of them said that they prefer to read Cat
News in an easy chair (or on the home exercise machine)
and not on the computer screen. Pictures of cats are
always worth a high quality print!
And we need the financial
support from the Friends of the Cat Group! At present
Cat News presently goes to 207 members and to 320 friends.
We hope that the new Cat News will remain an interesting
magazine, providing not only important and correct,
but also entertaining articles on cats and their conservation,
and we appreciate all comments and contributions to
make our newsletter better. We have also updated the
Archive CD with all issues up to 2008 allowing interested
people to have access to all past issues. We are very
greatful to all of you who help advertising for Cat
News and with that help to save its future!
Urs
Breitenmoser, Christine Breitenmoser-Würsten and Peter
Jackson
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