Caracal in the Moroccan Atlas

The North African caracal (Caracal caracal algira) is listed as Critically Endangered in North Africa and is, together with the serval (Leptailurus serval constantina), one of the continent's least known felids. Harmusch has been working since 2017 on surveying this species in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco, with special attention to Ifrane National Park.

The first expedition, in 2017, laid the foundations for the project. Subsequently, in coordination with the Agence Nationale des Eaux et Forêts, Ifrane National Park, the Living Planet Morocco Foundation, and Ibn Tofail University, a standardized camera-trapping system has been implemented to assess the abundance and ecology of the felids in the area.

The methodology combines camera traps with PIR sensors and infrared LEDs, deployed in strategic blocks and complemented with olfactory attractants (caracal and serval urine) to maximize detection rates. In parallel, the team conducts interviews with the local population and searches for signs (tracks, droppings) along transects.

Results to date suggest a very low probability that there is a stable caracal population in the Middle Atlas, due to unfavorable environmental conditions and the species' extreme rarity. Nevertheless, Harmusch has also recorded sporadic evidence of caracal in his Saharan expeditions — in the Hammada del Draa, Oued Tigsert, Djebel Ouarkziz, and the Rekkam plateau — including tracks and, on one occasion in 2015, the hearing of a vocalization in Oued Ksat, confirming the presence of a fragmented population at extremely low densities.

An essential component of the project is the training of local technical and field staff in camera deployment, data extraction, and analysis, with the aim of ensuring long-term monitoring of these ghost populations.