20 Sep 07

This week over 300 of the world's leading cat biologists are attending a conference at Oxford University to consider what can be done to save some of the planet's rarest cat species.

The Felid Biology and Conservation Conference, running from 17-20 September, is being organised by Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Unit (the WildCRU) in partnership with Panthera and the IUCN Cat Specialist Group. It will cover genetics, behaviour, ecology and practical conservation measures relevant to the survival of all wild cat species, from tigers and snow leopards to lions and Andean cats.

The conference and subsequent workshops are being sponsored by Panthera, a US-based charitable foundation. Panthera was founded last year by Oxford University graduate, Thomas Kaplan, with a vision to save the world's 36 species of wild cats and the landscapes they inhabit.

In follow-up work researchers hope to update current information on the status of wild cat species - deciding whether they are 'vulnerable', 'endangered' or 'critically endangered'. This is vital as the status of many species of wild cats has not been re-evaluated for almost a decade: during which time extensive changes have occurred to habitats around the world and new threats to wild cat survival have emerged. One of the results will be a 'wild cat encyclopaedia': a report summing up the current state of knowledge about cat populations and how conflict between these populations and humans could be managed.

Over the week-long event, held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Department of Physics, more than 150 researchers will give presentations on the biology and conservation of the Felidae, or cat family. It is hoped that, as well as the report, the conference and follow-up meetings - held at the WildCRU's Tubney House on 21-22 September - will result in a host of new collaborations and research projects.