Kodkod
Leopardus guina
A. Sliwa
Description
The guiña (or huiña) is the smallest felid in the American continent and one of the smallest in the world (1.5-3.0 kg). From an evolutionary perspective, guiñas are closely related to six other small Neotropical cats of the genus Leopardus belonging to the Ocelot Lineage. This exclusive Neotropical lineage diverged from a common ancestor around the formation of the Panamanian land bridge 2.8 million years ago (Ma). The guiña's sister species, the Geoffroy’s cat (Leopardus geoffroyi), which last shared a common ancestor less than 1 Ma, is found along the eastern side of the Andes mountain range. Two subspecies of the guiña are recognised based on morphological and genetic data:
-
Leopardus guigna tigrillo in North and Central Chile (30° to 39° S) which has a lighter coat and larger body size and
-
Leopardus guigna guigna in South Chile (38° to 48°S) and South-West Argentina (39° to 46° S) which is darker and smaller.
Based on the two subspecies, two main management units were identified for the conservation of the guiña.
The guiña looks similar to its close relative the Geoffroy’s cat, but the Guiña has a smaller face with distinctive markings, a thicker, bushier tail and is slightly smaller. The coat of the guiña is buff, grey-brown or reddish brown with many small black spots and its lighter belly is spotted too. The face of the guiña is characteristically marked: from each eye a black line crosses the cheek under the eye and another solid black stripe rises vertically on either side of the nose to the crown. Its ears are relatively small, rounded and have a black backside with a white central spot. Some individuals have prominent dark stripes across the throat. The guiña’s tail is black ringed and is about half of the head body length. Male guiñas are larger than females. Melanism is quite common in some regions. On Chiloé island and the Guaitecas islands in the Araucanía Region, the Queulat and Laguna San Rafael National Parks, and in the Neuquén Province in Argentina melanism seems to be particularly common but within the geographic range of the northern subspecies melanism is not known to occur.
Weight
1.5 - 3 kg
Body Length
37 - 56 cm
Tail Length
20 - 25 cm
Longevity
up to 11 years
Litter Size
1 - 4 cubs
P. Meier
Napolitano C, Galvez N, Bennett M, Acosta-Jamett G & Sanderson J. 2015. Leopardus guigna. 2015. Leopardus guigna. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2024-2
Status and Distribution
The guiña is classified as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List as the population is estimated at 26,383 to 101,294 mature individuals and there are no indications of high enough declines justifying any threatened Categorisation. Population trend is however uncertain. In Argentina the guiña is classified as Vulnerable, while in Chile it is considered Vulnerable from Los Ríos Region to the north and Near Threatened from Los Lagos Region to the south. In Argentina, the National Parks Administration considers this species of “special value”, and it is included among the high-priority species to conserve. Six geographic groups have been defined based on genetic differences, their distribution and differences in threats. The population size in the Northern Group was estimated at 70-372 mature individuals, at 510-3,359 for the Central Group, 12,749-48,115 MI in the Lake District Group, 1,831-6,777 Mi in the Chiloé Island Group, 63-122 MI in the Argentinian Group and 11,160-42,538 MI in the Group of Aysen. Population sizes were derived from either published telemetry densities or, if there was limited data, from Relative Abundance Indices from camera traps, multiplied by AOO. The Northern, Central and Argentinian Group have very low population sizes and are facing a very high risk of getting extinct in the near future. Overall population size is driven by two groups the Lake District any Aysén Group. The guiña faced historically a bottleneck leading to genetic diversity reduction. The Northern and Central groups show low genomic diversity, increasing their vulnerability to inbreeding and lack of adaptability to deal with environmental changes.
The guiñas northern range in central Chile is inhabited by more than half of the country's total human population which dramatically reduces the available habitat. In its southern range, its status seems to be more stable since human density is lower and more protected areas are in place.
The guiña has, in comparison to Neotropical cats and felids in general, a small extant of occurrence of 246,431 km² and a restricted area of occupancy of 105,609 km2. It occurs only in central and southern Chile (30°-48° S) and in a narrow strip of south-western Argentina (39°-43° S west of 70°W), including some offshore islands such as Isla Grande de Chiloé. The guiña also occurs in remnant forests and coastal areas of the Coquimbo region in the north of its distribution. Historically, its distribution suffered from habitat loss and fragmentation mainly caused by logging, habitat conversion to pine plantations, urban expansion and agricultural and livestock activities. The guiña is found up to an elevation of 1,962 m and is sympatric with the Geoffroy’s cat only in the eastern limits of its range in Argentina. In Argentina, the guiña is also sympatric with the Puma (Puma concolor) in forest ecosystems.
Habitat
The guina’s primary habitat is native forest but it can also inhabit secondary habitats, e.g. forest plantations and agricultural mosaic landscapes. It inhabits mediterranean matorral and sclerophyll woodlands and forests as well as temperate rainforests and Patagonian forest.
Vegetation cover is an important ecological requirement for the guiña as it typically occurs in forest with heavy understory. In its southern range, it is strongly associated with moist temperate mixed forests of the southern Andean and Coastal ranges, particularly the Valdivian and Araucania forests of Chile. A characteristic of these forests is the occurrence of southern beech (Nothofagus spp.) and bamboo in the understory. In south-west Argentina it is found in the Andean Patagonian Forest. In its northern range, it inhabits Mediterranean matorral and is found more in sclerophic forest and thicket. In Argentina guiñas have also been recorded within Subantarctic forests and Valdivian-like montane forest with bamboo structures, lianas and epiphytes. Radio-collared individuals were also observed to make particular use of forest edges. Forest patches that were smaller than 0.5 km² were used relatively rarely.
Guiñas seem to be relatively tolerant of altered habitat and are also recorded in secondary forest, pine or eucalyptus plantations, semi-open habitats or close to agricultural areas. Nevertheless, guiñas are not observed using or crossing grazed pasture with vegetation <0.4 m high. Guiñas were observed crossing open habitat only up to distances of 100 m to reach suitable habitat patches again. In the highly modified human agricultural landscapes of northern Chiloé Island, the species uses only vegetation corridors to move between forest fragments. Thus, corridors are essential for the long-term persistence of the guiña in human dominated landscapes.
P. Meier
Ecology and Behaviour
Activity patterns of the guiña vary in different regions and are potentially influenced by coat coloration. Guiñas are mainly active at night with some daily activity depending on the level of habitat modification. Melanistic individuals show stricter nocturnal activity than spotted ones. The guiña is a good climber, escaping to trees when threatened and it likes to shelter in trees during inactive periods. Guiñas also rest in dense cover near waterways and in thick piles of ground-level vegetation or quila thickets. Daily distances covered by radio-tracked guiña were up to 1.8 km in Torres del Paine and Queulat National Parks, and a maximum of 13.9 km in a fragmented landscape on the northeastern coast of Chiloé Island, revealing its high and facultative dispersal ability. Guiñas are agile hunters and mainly hunt on the ground.
Home range sizes in fragmented landscapes are larger than in continuous native forest areas. Home range sizes detected so far are 0.3-2.2 km² in the Aysén Region, in the Laguna San Rafael and Queulat National Parks, and 1.3-22.4 km² in a fragmented landscape on the northeastern coast of Chiloé Island. Average home range size in the Chilean Araucanía region was 6.23 km². The ranges of males are often larger than those of females. Male and female home ranges overlap largely whereas home ranges of individuals of the same sex are exclusive. However, a radio-collar study in 2004 in Chile found spatial overlap both within and between sexes. Gestation period lasts about 72–78 days.
Prey
The guiña in southern Chile preys mainly on small mammals like rodents, marsupials (i.e. Tyhlamys elegans, Dromiciops gliroides) and lagomorphs (i.e. exotic Oryctolagus cuniculus) but also on birds and invertebrates. It is also known to frequently feed on lizards and to occasionally take carrion and predate on poultry as well. In the Malleco National Reserve, Chile, most of the prey consisted of arboreal/scansorial small mammals, although ground-dwelling ones appeared to occur more frequently in the area. On Chiloé, besides rodents, also austral thrush, lapwings, chucao tapaculo, hued-hued, chickens and a goose were identified as prey. This is also observed in Argentina. Its diet does not seem to change significantly between seasons. Guiñas also scavenge opportunistically on carrions.
P. Meier
Main Threats
Current threats for the guiña include habitat loss and fragmentation mainly due to logging, agriculture and livestock rearing and habitat conversion to pine plantations, road kills, retaliation hunting, domestic carnivore pathogens and stochastic forest fires. Due to its restricted distribution and ecological requirements, it was believed that the guiña is especially vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation. However, a study indicated that the guiña might be able to cope better to some fragmentation than previously thought. Logging and deforestation have resulted in population fragmentation and local extinctions in the northern part of its range, the Chilean Matorral ecosystem. In the Central and Lake District, land conversion by pine plantations and logging let to high habitat loss and fragmentation. Also on Chiloé island native forests have been largely cleared and fragmented for farming and grazing. Forest fires may be the major driver in loss of primary habitat and these are expected to increase in frequency and severity in key areas. The distribution range of the guiña in Chile and Argentina is predicted to decrease under climate change scenarios. In the southern part of its range, human density is lower and more protected areas exist around agricultural lands. In Argentina, native forest is mostly continuous and around 75% of land is protected. Moreover, secondary habitat has increased and in southern Chile, agricultural mosaics seem highly important for the survival of the guiña. However, also these landscapes are increasingly threatened by subdivision of land due to urban expansion or peri-urban sprawl. This could lead to further reduced genetic diversity and hinder population viability in the long-term.
Since the beginning of the past century, many economically important non-native wild fauna have been introduced to Argentinean Patagonia to generate income. As a result, many native species, including the guiña, are valued less. In some areas the guiña is considered to be harmful vermin due to the predation of domestic poultry. In one study in the Valdivia area and on Chiloé Island, despite 66% of farmers acknowledging that confinement is necessary to protect their animals, up to 54% of farmers left their animals permanently unconfined. At the same time, 48.6% of participating farmers disliked guiñas, 57.5% regarded them as (very) damaging, and 19.8% wished for their population to decrease and 17% for them to disappear altogether. Illegal killing seems to be quite frequent throughout its range. Every year guiñas are killed in retaliation for poultry depredation, and this has happened even within Lanin National Park (Argentina). Negative attitudes are often based on popular beliefs, myths, and symbolism and not necessarily on the actual amount of damage caused. Some people erroneously consider the guiña as a “vampire” that sucks the blood of their prey without eating them. Guiñas are also killed by domestic dogs and by disease transmission by co-occurring domestic carnivores, dogs and cats. A study on Chiloé Island identified positive cases of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) in guiñas, probably transmitted from co-occurring domestic cats. In Los Ríos region, Chile, free-ranging, unvaccinated domestic cats were found to be abundant in the habitats of the guiña, posing a risk for pathogen transmission. Road kills are also a major problem for the species.
Conservation Efforts and Protection Status
The guiña is included in Appendix II of CITES and fully protected in Argentina and Chile. Two management units were proposed for the conservation of guiñas, which correspond to two subspecies. Furthermore, six genetic groups were identified.
Human populations and deforestation are increasing in the Chilean temperate rainforest and climate change seems to be an emerging additional threat. In the Northern and Central groups, fire prevention, improved management of forest plantations to permit flow of individuals and maintenance of understory habitat structure, protection of native forest and restoration of degraded areas are necessary. In southern Chile, protection of existing forests in Coastal and Andean cordilleras as well as specific policy-oriented interventions for agricultural lands are needed. Generally, the preservation of native vegetation corridors, providing safe road passages and/or implementation of speed reduction are required to provide connectivity between forest fragments or larger forested areas. The spatial extent of protected areas is not enough for the long-term viability of guiña populations and private lands need to be included into conservation efforts to assure the long-term persistence of populations. Long-term conservation challenges for the guiña outside protected areas will depend on the increase of local awareness to reduce conflict in areas where they are considered poultry pests, improving chicken coops and highlighting the services provided by its role as controller of mice - carriers of Hanta virus - and exotic European hares (Lepus europaeus).
A future challenge would be to understand and manage the potential pathological effect and emerging disease risk both FIV and FeLV infections may have for guiña populations. More information about the ecological requirements, demographics, densities, natural history, threats and the status of the guiña is needed, along with continuous population monitoring for improved population estimates and to enable accurate long-term conservation measures.
