PURR-FECT EFFORT!

Mari-it Wildlife and Conservation Park, located in Lambunao, Iloilo, is the first conservation and rescue park in Panay Island, as reported by Perla Lena in her 2019 article for the Philippine News Agency. The park hosts various animals, including the Visayan Leopard Cats.

Many of these animals were rescued from wildlife trafficking, poaching, and also from residential areas that have encroached on these felines’ territories on the island of Panay in the Visayas. They are expected to go extinct in five to ten years if left in the wild, based on Arnel Murga’s 2019 report for Mongabay.