In the border region between Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso lies a network of protected areas that form one of the largest intact wildernesses in West Africa. The W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) Complex is a mosaic of gallery forests, savannas and riparian habitats, and the last refuge for many of the region’s most iconic species, including West African lions (Panthera leo leo), savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) and cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus).

With conservation focused on these threatened and beloved species, it’s easy for the small cats to get lost. There are three species of small cats — servals (Leptailurus serval), caracals (Caracal caracal) and African wildcats (Felis lybica) — in the WAP complex. Though all three have a conservation status of least concern on the IUCN Red List, there are few hard facts about their numbers in the WAP Complex or West Africa. With continuing insecurity plaguing the region, and little money for small cat research, these species risk falling even further into obscurity.

“If I had to summarize in a sentence the situation of small cats in the WAP (and in West Africa in general), I would say that we barely know anything about them and the threats they are facing,” Marine Drouilly, regional carnivore monitoring coordinator for West and Central Africa at the cat-focused NGO Panthera, tells Mongabay in an email. “There is a very big lack of research on all aspects of their ecology, from their distribution to their population dynamics, their biology and their relations with people.”

At the heart of the WAP Complex lie three strictly protected areas: Pendjari National Park in Benin, Arly National Park in Burkina Faso, and W Regional Park, which straddles the Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger border region. Together, these parks, along with adjoining hunting zones, wildlife reserves and areas under other forms of protection, cover 34,000 square kilometers (13,100 square miles). The core area, about half of it, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Over the past few years, the region has been plagued by insecurity. Jihadist militants are entrenched in the Burkina Faso and Niger portions of the complex, with violence increasingly spilling over into Benin. Conservation work has become difficult and dangerous, though South Africa-based organization African Parks, which manages Pendjari National Park and the Benin portion of W, still carries out some biomonitoring activities, says Jacques Kougbadi, marketing and communications coordinator for African Parks.

Most of what’s known about the small cats here comes from camera-trapping surveys targeting other species like leopards (Panthera pardus) and cheetahs, Drouilly says. All three species of small cats were detected during biennial camera-trap surveys in Pendjari National Park done over the last five years, but at the time, it wasn’t safe to survey the other parks. The most recent data from Arly National Park and the Burkina Faso and Niger portions of W Regional Park come from surveys conducted between 2016 and 2018. At the time, the surveys recorded all three species, albeit at relatively low abundance, according to a 2019 study.

Drouilly notes that it’s unlikely that the small cats are doing particularly well in either Arly or W, as human encroachment and livestock grazing are a continuing problem in those parks.

Generally, encroachment and habitat degradation hasn’t been as big an issue in Pendjari National Park, says Etotépé Sogbohossou, director of the environmental department at Senghor University in Egypt. And in the Benin portion of W, things improved after African Parks took over management in 2020.

However, it’s difficult to know how the current unrest within the WAP, particularly in Burkina Faso and Niger, is directly affecting the small cats, says Sogbohossou, who has conducted research on carnivores in the WAP Complex. The presence of terrorists may be driving out the local population from the protected areas, reducing encroachment. On the other hand, poachers might be moving in, but they’re likely to focus on the bigger species, though may opportunistically kill the small cats too.

But overall, the poor security situation makes working in the parks extremely difficult and hazardous. Sogbohossou used to supervise students working on field projects in the region, but says she’s no longer comfortable sending students there.

“In the past, we can go anywhere inside the park … but it’s not possible anymore,” she says.

One ongoing threat to servals, and possibly caracals, is the wildlife trade. Researchers found both serval and caracal skins during covert surveys of medicine markets in Benin and Niger in 2017 and 2019, according to a 2024 study. However, it wasn’t possible to confirm if the skins came from within the WAP Complex. The survey also found that skins and body parts of lions, not small cats, were the most common of the medium and large carnivores.

“Like other spotted cats, servals are likely to be targeted for their skin, as this was the only body part found in the markets,” says study co-author Audrey Ipavec, regional coordinator of the Africa Range-Wide Cheetah Conservation Initiative at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). She notes that serval skin might be used as a substitute for leopard or cheetah skins, which are highly valued by many cultures across the region.

Drouilly and colleagues conducted similar surveys of markets in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. They found serval and caracal skins, as well as domestic cat skins, though these were less common than products from lions and leopards.

Other potential threats to small cats in the region include overgrazing by domestic livestock and the yearly burning of grasslands, according to Drouilly. This can lead to a drop in small mammal populations, making it harder for the cats to find the prey they need. Servals might be particularly vulnerable to habitat loss, as they depend on wetlands within their core range, Drouilly says.

Habitat loss also indirectly endangers small cats by pushing them into closer contact with humans, risking retaliatory killing for preying on poultry or being hit on the road. Or, people might kill them opportunistically in the hopes of making some money from the skin, or simply out of fear, Sogbohossou says.

Funding to study and conserve small cats remains an ongoing barrier. It’s difficult for researchers to get money for species that aren’t globally threatened, Sogbohossou says, especially in Africa where resources are tight. Yet it’s also important to take into account a species’ regional status, and try to conserve the genetic diversity that occurs across a species’ range. Widely distributed species, like servals, caracals and African wildcats, are less likely to be globally threatened, but local extirpation is still a danger.

African Parks’ Kougbadi says more research on the small cats is needed, including on their roles in ecosystems and how they contribute to pest control in the agricultural areas around the parks. But that requires funding for research.

“The first step would be to conduct some assessments of species status … to then be able to develop conservation interventions in the ground, if those are possible with the security situation,” Drouilly says.

Banner image: An African wildcat in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. While little is known about the threats facing African wildcats in West Africa, across their range they are at risk from hybridization and disease transmission from domestic cats. Image via Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Citations:

Harris, N. C., Mills, K. L., Harissou, Y., Hema, E. M., Gnoumou, I. T., VanZoeren, J., … Doamba, B. (2019). First camera survey in Burkina Faso and Niger reveals human pressures on mammal communities within the largest protected area complex in West Africa. Conservation Letters, 12(5). doi:10.1111/conl.12667.

Gerstenhaber, C., Ipavec, A., Lapeyre, V., Plowman, C., Chabi-N’Diaye, Y., Tevoedjre, F., … Durant, S. M. (2024). Illegal wildlife trade: An analysis of carnivore products found in markets in Benin and Niger. Global Ecology and Conservation, 51. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02880.