Panthera Corporation, orPanthera, is acharitable organization devoted to preservingwild cats and theirecosystems around the globe. Founded in 2006, Panthera is devoted to the conservation of the world’s 40 species of wild cats and the vast ecosystems they inhabit. Their team of biologists, data scientists, law enforcement experts and wild cat advocates studies and protects the seven species of big cats:cheetahs,jaguars,leopards,lions,pumas,snow leopards andtigers.^[1][2] Panthera also creates targeted conservation strategies for the world’s most threatened and overlookedsmall cats, such asfishing cats,ocelots andAndean cats. The organization has offices inNew York City andEurope, as well as offices inMesoamerica,South America,Africa andAsia.

Panthera

Founded	2006
Founders	Thomas S. Kaplan Alan Rabinowitz
Type	Non-profit organization
Tax ID no.	20-4668756
Focus	Develops, implements, and oversees range-wide species conservation strategies
Headquarters	New York City
Area served	World-wide
CEO	Frederic Launay
Website	https://www.panthera.org

Panthera works in partnership with local and internationalNGOs, scientific institutions, corporate partner and government agencies to develop and implement range-wide species conservation strategies. It has funded the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit atOxford University, with a diploma program in international wildlife practice.^[2] The organization also awards a number of grants to support promising field conservationists. These grant programs include the Kaplan Graduate Awards, the Research and Conservation Grants, the Small Cat Action Fund, the Sabin Snow Leopard Grant Program and the Winston Cobb Memorial Fellowships.^[1]

Panthera was co-founded in 2006 by American scientistAlan Rabinowitz and AmericanentrepreneurThomas S. Kaplan^[3]

Kaplan served as Chairman of Panthera’s Board of Trustees, succeeded in 2021 by Jonathan Ayers.^[4] Kaplan currently is Chairman of The Global Alliance for Wild Cats.^[5] Rabinowitz was the first President and CEO from 2001 until 2017 when he was succeeded byFrench scientist Fred Launay.^[6] Dr. Rabinowitz helped establish the world's first jaguar preserve in 1986, inBelize,^[7] and was the main driving force behind the Jaguar Corridor that connects jaguar populations across its range, fromMexico toArgentina.^[2]

In 2014 Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan pledged $20 million over 10 years to fund the organization. The couple were joined byH.H. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,Jho Low and Hemendra Kothari each who each pledged the same amount to support the organization.^[3]

John Goodrich leads Panthera’s Tiger Program and serves as Chief Scientist. Kim Young-Overton serves as Director of Panthera’s Cheetah Program, and Gareth Mann is Director of Panthera’s Leopard Program. Additionally, Byron Weckworth is the Director of the Snow Leopard Program, Wai-Ming Wong is Director of the Small Cats Program and Mark Elbroch is the Director of the Puma Program. Howard Quigley joined the organization in 2009^[8] and is currently the Director of its Jaguar Program.

• Jonathan Ayers, board chair and former chairman and CEO ofIDEXX Laboratories^[9]
• Frederic Launay, Ph.D., President and CEO of Panthera and former presidential advisor ofIUCN
• Thomas S. Kaplan, Ph.D., founder and Global Alliance chair
• Ross J. Beaty, C.M., benefactor of theBeaty Biodiversity Museum
• Lieutenant General SirGraeme Lamb, KBE, CMG, DSO
• Duncan McFarland, director ofNew Profit Inc.
• Hon.Claudia A. McMurray
• H.E.Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak
• HH PrinceBadr bin Abdullah Al-Saud
• Robert Quartermain
• Eira Thomas
• Celina Chien

In South America,Mesoamerica andMexico, Panthera is developing atransnationalcorridor to help protect the jaguar. Jaguar survival and health depends on a network of corridors that span the continent, while past efforts focused on developing distinct sanctuaries.^[10] It is the jaguar's ability to travel long distances that prevents inbreeding and consequentextinction.

In August 2010, inBelize, Panthera worked with the government to create the Labouring Creek Jaguar CorridorWildlife Sanctuary, with more than 7,000 acres (28 km²) of land. The project is part of the Panthera Jaguar Corridor Initiative.^[11] InCosta Rica, it is researching the routes that jaguars travel, and encouraging politicians and developers to respect those routes. They are also sponsoring community outreach programs to alleviate "jaguar conflict issues".^[10] In Mesoamerica and North America, Panthera also works in Mexico,Guatemala,^[12]Honduras^[13] andNicaragua, in addition to its ongoing work in Belize and Costa Rica.

In early 2010, Panthera signed a deal with theColombian government to protect and develop the area where the Central and South American jaguar corridors converge in Colombia. InBrazil, Panthera manages Fazenda Jofre Velho,^[14] one of the most important research bases in thePantanal. They are working with local ranchers to find benign ways to protect their cattle, rather than the typical approach of shooting the jaguars.^[7]

Panthera’s South American puma initiatives are focused inChile. Working with their partner, the Fundación Cerro Guido Conservación,^[15] they are exploring various methods to enhance the peaceful coexistence between pumas andsheep, including protectiveMaremma andPirineossheepdogs,Foxlights and supporting pumaecotourism.

Panthera also works to protect pumas and small cats across the Americas. In the Northwest, theirOlympicCougar Project represents an important and exciting partnership between Panthera and sixindigenous tribes, led by theLower Elwha Klallam Tribe, to study and protect pumas in the denseconiferous forests, glacier-clad mountains and rugged coastlines ofWashington’s stunningOlympic Peninsula.^[16] Previously, Panthera’s puma initiatives in the United States were focused in Wyoming.

In the Northeast U.S., Panthera also runs theNew York Millfarm Bobcat Project^[17] to understandbobcat ecology in an eastern rural landscape and use this information to develop a replicable monitoring protocol to inform bobcat management plans in New York State and other States along the eastern coast.

In Asia, Panthera's Tigers Forever project is planning a 5,000-mile (8,000 km) long corridor fromBhutan toMyanmar for wild tiger populations. The corridor would also include land in northeastIndia,Thailand, andMalaysia, and possiblyLaos,Cambodia, andVietnam.^[18]

Panthera works in India, and has increased tiger numbers inManas National Park. Additionally, further east, in August 2010, the government of Myanmar announced the expansion, by 4,248 square miles (11,000 km²), of theHukawng Valley Tiger Reserve, the world's largest tiger preserve. Panthera CEO Alan Rabinowitz helped bring together representatives from theKachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government to make the expansion possible.^[19]

InJohor State, Malaysia, Panthera is working with the state government and theWildlife Conservation Society to increase tiger numbers by 50% over a ten-year period. As part of that project, in early 2010 Panthera cameras captured an image of a rarespotted leopard inTaman Negara National Park andEndau-Rompin National Park, where onlyblack leopards were believed to exist.^[20]

Panthera also works in Thailand to protect wild cats, includingtigers andfishing cats, and inMalaysian Borneo to study the five species of small cats that inhabitSabah.

In August 2010, the government of Burma announced the expansion, by 4,248 square miles (11,000 km²), of theHukawng Valley Tiger Reserve, the world's largest tiger preserve. Panthera CEO Alan Rabinowitz helped bring together representatives from theKachin Independence Army and the Burma government to make the expansion possible.^[21][22]

InJohor State, Malaysia, Panthera is working with the state government and theWildlife Conservation Society to increase tiger numbers by 50% over a ten-year period. As part of that project, in early 2010 Panthera cameras captured an image of a rarespotted leopard inTaman Negara National Park andEndau-Rompin National Park, where onlyblack leopards were believed to exist.^[23]

Panthera's Snow Leopard Program is studying the species inMongolia, and surveying new regions where the animals are likely to live, but have not yet been discovered. They work with local animal herders to train them in new approaches that will reduce livestock lost to the leopards. They are also working at protection for the estimated 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards inCentral Asia. Programs include giving a bonus to Mongolian herding communities that have gone one year without killing a snow leopard, andlivestock vaccinations inPakistan, where loss to disease is greater than leopard depredation.^[24][25]

Panthera'sSnow Leopard Program has studied the species inMongolia, and surveyed new regions where the animals are likely to live, but have not yet been discovered.^[25] They are also working to protect snow leopards inCentral Asia, including inKyrgyzstan andTajikistan.^[26][27][28]

Panthera’s work in theMiddle East focuses on theArabian Peninsula. With the support provided by theRoyal Commission for AlUla (RCU), there is a strong focus onleopards, and specifically on restoring and conserving leopards in theKingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).^[29]

Panthera works across the African continent. InSouth Africa, the Sabi Sands protected area, bordering theKruger National Park, is a long-term leopard research site and one of Panthera’s flagship projects. The knowledge generated from this work is critical to informing localwildlife management and broader conservation policy across the leopard range.^[30]

WithinZambia, Panthera project sites are focused in the Greater Kafue Ecosystem (GKE).^[31] They currently support 17anti-poaching teams, two dedicated lion monitoring and protection teams and one leopard monitoring team acrossKafue National Park and surrounding Game Management Areas.^[32] Panthera’sCheetah Program has alsoGPS collared cheetahs in the park.^[33] Panthera also has project sites elsewhere across southern Africa, including inZimbabwe andAngola.

Since 2010, Panthera has collaborated withAgence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN),Gabon’s National Park Agency, to monitor wildlife inPlateaux Batéké National Park, where a lone male lion was spotted on a camera trap. Panthera Gabon is currently working on a countrywide leopard survey and helping theGabonese government and ANPN identifygazelle wildlife movement corridors in order to secure and connect populations.^[34]

Over the past decade, Panthera has built a strong working relationship with the government ofSenegal, formalized through a long-term agreement with the Department of National Parks to strengthen park management and security inNiokolo-Koba National Park.^[35] They provide direct support toranger teams for effective large-scale patrols, the rebuilding and expansion of the park’s infrastructure and intensive ecological monitoring, including monitoring of lions using GPS-satellite collars.^[36]

Panthera also works on initiatives insouthern Africa that providesynthetic wild cat furs to communities in place of traditional garb.^[37] They work with the Barotse Royal Establishment of theLozi People inZambia (Saving Spots Initiative) and theNazareth Baptist ChurcheBuhleni (known as the Shembe Church) in South Africa (Furs for Life Initiative) in this capacity.^[38][39] More than 18,500 synthetic capes have already been distributed to the Shembe Church,^[40][41] and synthetic garb was provided to the Lozi people during the traditionalKuomboka Festival in 2022.

• Rewilding (conservation biology)
• Conservation science (biology)
• Conservation status
• GPS animal tracking

• Official website
• Panthera's channel onYouTube.
• Leopard Spotted
• Mes Del Jaguar^[usurped]