Insitu 2026
Big Cat Rescue funds field partners around the world working to keep wild cats safe in the wild. Here is what your support made possible in 2026, most recent first.
Tiger Cat and Other Small Wild Cats — Brazil
In 2026 Big Cat Rescue paid out $258,983 of our annual commitment to the Tiger Cats Conservation Initiative, led by Tadeu de Oliveira, in three installments (January, May, and September). The funding supports a range of activities to protect tiger cats and other small wild cats in Brazil, including spay/neuter/vaccination of free-roaming cats and dogs to prevent disease spillover into wild cats, community workshops and camera-trap programs to reduce conflict, predator-proof chicken coops and income-generating projects and services (including dental care) that build goodwill with local communities, roadkill-prevention signage, and camera monitoring to track populations and measure whether these threats are being reduced.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/tcci
Pampas Cat and Other Small Wild Cats — Peru & Ecuador
Big Cat Rescue paid $176,210 in 2026 toward our annual commitment to the Pampas Cat Working Group, led by Cindy Hurtado and four regional team leaders, across three installments (January, May, and September). The funds support spay/neuter/vaccination of free-roaming cats and dogs, community workshops and camera-trap engagement to ease conflict with wild cats, predator-proof chicken coops and income-generating and service projects (including dental care) to build local support, roadkill-mitigation signage, and camera-based population monitoring.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/pampas-cat-working-group
Ocelot and Other Small Wild Cats — Mexico & El Salvador
Big Cat Rescue paid $176,346 in 2026 toward our annual commitment to the Ocelot Working Group, coordinated by Mariam Weston through Fundación Cumbres Blancas A.C. and two regional team leaders, in three installments (January, May, and September). The grant funds spay/neuter/vaccination of free-roaming cats and dogs, conflict-reduction workshops and community camera-trap participation, predator-proof chicken coops and income-generating and service projects (including dental care), roadkill-prevention signage, and camera monitoring of wild cat populations and threats.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/ocelot-working-group
Bobcats — Florida, USA
Big Cat Rescue gave a total of $7,950 in 2026 to Owl's Nest Sanctuary for Wildlife, run by Kris Porter, to support their bobcat rehabilitation hospital — $7,000 to replace the hospital's air conditioning system and $950 to help clear land for the new Owl's Nest Hospital.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/2024-sharing-the-holiday-spirit
All Cat Species — Worldwide
Big Cat Rescue gave $10,000 to fund travel expenses for Tadeu de Oliveira, newly installed Co-Chair of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, so he can most effectively carry out taxonomic decisions and Red List threat assessments that help prevent the extinction of wild cats.
Marbled Cat and Clouded Leopard — Northeast India
Big Cat Rescue contributed $15,000 toward a $50,000 purchase of roughly 10,000 acres of undeveloped land near Tuting, in the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, coordinated by Malla Giridhar of the Eastern Himalayan Marbled Cat Project (Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation). The land will be set aside as permanent conservation land and, once purchased, handed over to the community council to be established as a "Nyaming Community Conserved Area." A research station on the site — approved by the community — will let indigenous students study the region's native biodiversity, with the local forest department involved to ensure the land is legally recognized for conservation.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/marbled-cat-conservation
Pallas's Cat — Mongolia
Big Cat Rescue gave $14,000 to the Steppe Wildlife Research and Conservation Center, led by Otgonbayar Baatargal, to build five to seven new den sites for Pallas's cats. When a manul mother leaves her cubs to find a new den of her own, she often has to travel long distances across open terrain, exposing her to predators — so the project uses heavy equipment to move and shape large rocks into new dens closer to existing dens and to areas rich in rodent prey.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/protect-pallas-cats
Fishing Cat — South & Southeast Asia
Big Cat Rescue paid $50,000 of our $75,000 annual commitment to the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance, led by Ashan Thudugala, across two installments in March and June. The funding supports work to identify and reduce threats to fishing cats, including conflict with local communities and roadkill, and to educate and engage those communities in conservation.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/fishing-cat-conservation-alliance
Geoffroy's Cat and Other Small Wild Cats — Brazil
Big Cat Rescue paid $156,200 in 2026 to the Geoffroy's Cat Working Group, led by Flávia Tirelli — $60,600 toward our annual commitment in February, $90,600 to complete that commitment in June, and an additional $5,000 in June above the annual commitment. The funding supports spay/neuter/vaccination of free-roaming cats and dogs, conflict-reduction workshops and community camera-trap engagement, predator-proof chicken coops and income-generating and service projects (including dental care), roadkill-prevention signage, and population monitoring through camera traps.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/geoffroys-cat-working-group
Tiger — India
For International Tiger Day, Big Cat Rescue raised $46,750 for the Corbett Foundation to fund two projects: solar-powered street lights around villages to deter tiger attacks on people at night, and removal of invasive Lantana plants from tiger preserves, where the plants crowd out the native vegetation that herbivores — the tigers' prey — depend on, making it harder for mother tigers to find enough food to support themselves and their cubs.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/the-corbett-foundation
Multiple Species — Global
Big Cat Rescue gave $70,000 to Freeland (freeland.org), an international counter-trafficking organization working across Asia, Africa, and Latin America to stop the illegal wildlife trade — one of the greatest threats to wild cats and other endangered species. Freeland's law-enforcement and technical experts find and stop traffickers while helping governments, companies, and the public build recovery and prevention programs, forming and training task forces and engaging the public. Freeland is currently leading a growing global coalition pressing Meta to act against wildlife traffickers who use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger to sell endangered animals. Since 2020, Freeland has trained nearly 3,000 officers, supported 356 agencies, rehabilitated 1,646 wild animals, and helped seize $111 million in assets from traffickers across 35 countries.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/freeland
African Golden Cat — Uganda
Big Cat Rescue gave $25,000 in 2026 to the African Golden Cat Conservation Alliance, led by Badru Mugerwa and channeled through the local nonprofit Embaka. The funding reduces poaching by improving local livelihoods and food security so communities no longer need to poach for income or food — through pig, rabbit, goat, and sheep "seed banks" that reproduce for income and food, free oral care, community surveillance and snare-removal teams, small loans through Savings and Credit Cooperatives, school education programs, and tree nurseries that provide alternative fuel sources.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/african-golden-cat-conservation-alliance
Pallas's Cat, Snow Leopard & Cheetah — Iran and beyond
Big Cat Rescue gave $1,000 to formally publish, with a DOI, a Persian translation of the IUCN's Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Guidelines — the most-downloaded and most widely used guidelines within IUCN. The translation was coordinated by Mariam Weston of the Ocelot Working Group, after an Iranian biologist volunteered her time to translate the guidelines at no cost. It's expected to be highly useful in regions where human–carnivore conflict is significant, including habitat shared with Pallas's cats, snow leopards, and cheetahs.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/ocelot-working-group
African Wildcat — South Africa
Big Cat Rescue gave $15,000 to Alley Cat Rescue, led by Louise Holton with Debbie Holzer, to fund spay/neuter programs for free-roaming domestic cats in South Africa, reducing hybridization between domestic cats and African wildcats.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/alley-cat-rescue
Colocolo — Chile
Big Cat Rescue gave $20,000 to the Pampas Cat Working Group, coordinated locally by Carlos Castro, to reduce threats to the colocolo, a wild cat found only in Chile — through community education to reduce human-wildlife conflict, and sterilization and vaccination campaigns for domestic animals to cut the risk of disease transmission to wild colocolo.
https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/colocolo-conservation-project
Andean Cats
A partnership of passion and purpose between Quechua biologist Merinia Mendoza Almeida and world-renowned small wildcat expert Dr. Jim Sanderson, with the support for such projects by Big Cat Rescue. Together, they are reshaping how conservation is done—placing knowledge, power, and respect back into the hands of those who have always belonged to the land.
Wild Cats of Borneo
On Borneo, annually fires threaten the preserved areas that are home to five species of wild cat (Bay Cat, Flat-headed cat, Sunda Clouded Leopard, Marbled Cat, Sunda Leopard Cat) as well as other animals. A grant to Borneo Nature Foundation Indonesia in the amount of $12,500 provides equipment to support the work of all nine volunteer firefighting teams for two weeks.
See More Detail on InSitu Work Funded by Big Cat Rescue
See the current year of InSitu work here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu/
See InSitu work from 2025 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/insitu2025
See InSitu work from 2024 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2024/
See InSitu work from 2023 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2023/
See InSitu work from 2022 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2022/
See InSitu work from 2021 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2021/
See InSitu work from 2020 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2020/
See InSitu work from 2019 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2019/
See InSitu work from 2018 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2018/
See InSitu work from 2017 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2017/
See InSitu work from 2016 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/insitu2016/
See Insitu work from 1996 - 2015 here: https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/past-conservation-donations
