I am indebted to the many scientists and naturalists whose work on cats provided much of the material for my text. Although they are too numerous to list, the publications and observations of the following people were particularly important in writing the text; Mauricio Anton, Ted Bailey, Guy Balme, Hans Bauer, Koos Bothma, Tim Caro, Alain Dragesco-Joffe, Sarah Durant, Frauke Fischer, Laurence Frank, Paul Funston, Aadje Geertsema, Philipp Henschel, Lex Hes, David Jenny, Marcella Kelly, Jonathan Kingdon, Karen Laurenson, Laurie Marker, Gus Mills, Craig Packer, Gustav Peters, Netty Purchase, Justina Ray, George Schaller, Jonathan and Angie Scott, John Seidensticker, Alex Sliwa, Flip Stander, Chris & Tilde Stuart, Mel & Fiona Sunquist, Alan Turner, Tim Wacher and Peyton West. Thanks also to John Newby and Amina Fellous for assistance with local names of wild cats in the Sahara; and to Chris Wozencraft and Don Wilson who allowed me to preview their revised classification of carnivores from Mammal Species of the World.
I am very grateful to the colleagues and friends who donated the use of their photographs to fill some critical gaps, in particular, thanks to Carol Amore, Christian Sperka and Gus van Dyk. I am very grateful to Philipp Henschel (WCS) for the use of his unique golden cat photograph, and to Eve Gracie of Black Eagle Publications for ensuring it reached Cape Town. I am indebted to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Department of Environment and the CACP secretariat, particularly Dr Hadi Soleimanpour and Hooshang Ziaie, for permission to use the camera-trap image of the Asiatic cheetah in Iran.
My employer, the Wildlife Conservation Society provided substantial assistance while I was writing; in particular, thanks to Alan Rabinowitz for his encouragement in taking on the project and for support throughout; to Catherine Grippo for compiling reference material; and to Nicole Williams who assisted in the book’s final stages. Justina Ray (WCS) provided excellent, up-to-date maps and permitted the use of her range loss analyses for the section on the status of cats. A special mention goes to Michael Cline and Tom Kaplan who provide extraordinary support towards WCS’s efforts to conserve wild cats in Africa and elsewhere. Special thanks also to Jim Dines for his wonderful generosity.
As always, the Struik team was a pleasure to work with; thanks to Pippa Parker for inviting me to write this book and for keeping the entire process on track and to Janice Evans for working relentlessly to ensure a wonderful design. I am in awe of Helen de Villiers’ meticulous and extremely rapid editorial work, which did not falter in the midst of a personal tragedy. Tim Hunter proofread the entire text, saving me from a number of errors and making many valuable suggestions; the end result is significantly improved as a result. Above all, my wife Sophie continues to tolerate my spending weekends and nights writing while providing invaluable comments on the text. This book would not have happened without her.
LUKE HUNTER
New York, 2005