{"id":2189724,"date":"2026-02-12T18:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2189724"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:52:08","slug":"predators-in-peril-protected-areas-cover-just-a-fraction-of-global-carnivore-ranges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/predators-in-peril-protected-areas-cover-just-a-fraction-of-global-carnivore-ranges\/","title":{"rendered":"Predators in peril: Protected areas cover just a fraction of global carnivore ranges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slinking beneath the greenery of the Amazon is a cat whose territory far exceeds its stature. Despite weighing less than the average housecat, scientists say the northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) stalks a territory of up to 50 square kilometers (around 20 square miles). And this small, spotted feline is not alone \u2014 carnivores around the world depend on vast swaths of natural land to survive. But their ranges are in peril.<\/p>\n

\"A
A northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) in the Brazilian savannas of Mirador State Park. In South America, these cats face threats from multiple sources, including viruses from dogs and fragmented habitats due to human development. Image Credit: Wild Cats Brazil-Americas Conservation Program \/ Tiger Cats Conservation Initiative<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Human pressure is degrading the territory many carnivores need to hunt and breed, according to a recent study in Science Advances that assessed the impacts on the ranges and populations of 257 species across the planet. The researchers found that 64% of the total, combined range of these carnivores overlaps with areas of high human population density and urban infrastructure. Only 35% of this range overlaps with any kind of conservation lands.<\/p>\n

Many large carnivores included in the assessment are keystone species whose populations are critical to the health of entire ecosystems, said co-author Nuria Selva, an ecologist at the Do\u00f1ana Biological Station in Seville, Spain. \u201cWe need to keep ecosystems functioning, and carnivores are very important pieces of these ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bengal
Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) mother and cub in in Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. In some Asian reserves, habitat fragmentation from human development has led to genetic bottlenecks that threaten species survival. Image credit: Tisha Mukherjee \/ Wikimedia Commons \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To analyze the extent of the impact of human land use on these animals\u2019 ranges, Selva\u2019s team used IUCN Red List data on the geographic ranges of land-dwelling carnivores, from weasels to polar bears, and compared it to human footprint maps based on data from 2000 to 2018. Protected areas \u2014 defined by the IUCN as spaces that are dedicated and managed for the long-term conservation of nature \u2014 overlapped with only 10% of the combined area of global carnivore ranges. Wilderness areas, which were characterized in the study as \u201cecologically intact landscapes devoid of human pressures,\u201d fared slightly better, overlapping with 16% of total carnivore ranges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe take home message is that, conservation wise, we do not have these animals protected,\u201d said co-author Tadeu de Oliveira, an ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation and Ecology Lab at State University of Maranh\u00e3o in S\u00e3o Luis, Brazil who studies tiger cats and other South American felids. These species\u2019 populations have taken hits in recent years from warming climates and viruses from dogs, just two examples of the kinds of threats carnivores face globally.<\/p>\n

Increasing pressure from the expanding human footprint comes against a backdrop of climate change, which compounds the problems, the authors wrote. Many species of large carnivores will experience population declines due to loss of suitable habitats and available food as a result of climate change. The threats aren\u2019t size specific \u2014 scientists have previously shown that small carnivore populations tend to suffer declines similar to those of their larger cousins.<\/p>\n

\"A
A family of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Bialowieza Forest, Poland. Top-level carnivores like wolves play important roles as keystone species, prompting conservation efforts like the Yellowstone Wolf Project to restore ecological balance in ecosystems. Image credit: Adam Wajrak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But there was a bright spot in the new study: When the team looked at Indigenous lands, they found an outsized contribution. Despite Indigenous peoples making up only 6.2% of the world\u2019s population, their land overlaps with more than a quarter of the total carnivore range globally.<\/p>\n

These findings underscore that the future of carnivore conservation depends not only on protected areas, but also on sustaining the rights and stewardship of Indigenous communities. Yet even these strongholds are increasingly vulnerable. Intact ecosystems were once naturally shielded by distance from human settlements, said James Watson, a conservation scientist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, who was not involved in the global assessment. \u201cThat isn\u2019t true anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Weasels
Weasels are among the smallest of all carnivore species. Small carnivores play important roles in their ecosystems and show parallel declines to large carnivores globally, despite receiving fewer IUCN threat assessments. Image credit: Daniel Seth Jackson \/ Wikimedia Commons \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Expanding cities, roads and other infrastructure now carve up what were once vast, connected habitats, Watson said. As development pushes into previously remote areas, lands managed by Indigenous groups are becoming even more crucial for carnivore survival.<\/p>\n

Even in wilderness areas, construction of roads and hotels has diminished the ability of carnivores to survive, Selva said, stressing the need for governments to increase safeguards for protected lands. \u201cThis is a question for the policymakers. They can protect areas, they can change the laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citation:<\/h2>\n

Torres-Romero, E. J., Eppley, T. M., Ripple, W. J., Newsome, T. M., Krofel, M., Carter, N. H., Ordiz, A., de Oliveira, T.G., Selva, N. & Penteriani, V. (2025). Global scale assessment of the human-induced extinction crisis of terrestrial carnivores. Science advances, 11(29), eadq2853.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> by Alonso Daboub was first published by Mongabay on 3 December 2025. Lead Image: An Asian dhole (Cuon alpinus) in a grassy field. Human impact hot spots for Canidae, like dhole, include Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, and South America. Image credit: Kalyan Varma \/ Wikimedia Commons \/ CC BY-SA 4.0.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slinking beneath the greenery of the Amazon is a cat whose territory far exceeds its stature. Despite weighing less than the average housecat, scientists say the northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) stalks a territory of up to 50 square kilometers (around 20 square miles). And this small, spotted feline is not alone \u2014 carnivores around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2205559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2025\/12\/03003720\/Carnivores-Photo-5-1200x800.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[264,3635,5230,6671,9841,6088,4644,9659,558,5752,1978],"class_list":["post-2189724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-bengal-tiger","tag-carnivores","tag-dhole","tag-genet","tag-gray-wolves","tag-leopardus-tigrinus","tag-panthera-tigris-tigris","tag-polar-bears","tag-predators","tag-tiger-cat","tag-weasel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2205559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}