Following the path of wild cats
How tracking felines is helping restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Felines have always held our attention. Their incomparable gaze, the sinuousness of their strides, their tails dancing in the air, pure elegance. They reign at the top of the food chain.
In the southern Atlantic Forest of Brazil, inside the Aguaí State Biological Reserve, the story begins with the imprint of a wild cat on the forest floor.
Since 2005, the Felinos do Aguaí Institute has monitored the forest’s most elusive residents: pumas, ocelots, margays, jaguarundis, and tiger cats, learning what their presence reveals about a changing forest.
Over time, research wasn’t enough. The team became reforesters and educators, weaving research, environmental education, One Health, and rewilding to help people and wildlife learn to coexist.
In 2023, they built a forest nursery to grow native seedlings and reconnect fragments of a once-continuous forest.
Local communities sit at the heart of this work.
Through school visits, forest walks, and planting days, children learn to read the land, through tracks, birdsong, and changing seasons.
Together, they’ve planted 663 native trees, restored spring areas across the Aguaí Reserve, supporting a network of natural springs that feed local rivers. These rivers contribute to the São Bento River basin, whose reservoir supplies water to over 300K people.
In parallel to ecosystem recovery, 11 wild cats were rehabilitated.
Pumas keep breeding. King vultures and red howler monkeys have returned. And 317 companion animals have been vaccinated to protect wildlife and the community.
Today, Felinos do Aguaí shares this work on Restor, mapping restored areas, tracking change over time, and connecting with a global community working toward rewilding at scale.
Explore, learn from, and support the work unfolding in the Aguaí State Biological Reserve on Restor.
