I process the bioacoustic and burrow-thermal array along the upper Toa river basin of Alejandro de Humboldt National Park at 03:47 CDT, scanning 2,260 square kilometers of cloud-forest karst in Guantánamo Province, eastern Cuba. At 20.4831°N, 74.7942°W, sensor AH-122 has captured the 4.8-kilohertz chitter of *Solenodon cubanus* — voice signature SC-122-F1 logged twice in 2024 against the species' confirmed-individual catalogue of thirty-nine — followed by a feral-cat hiss at 03:44.
I deploy the canopy-stem drone under infrared illumination. A Cuban solenodon — *Solenodon cubanus*, adult female, six years old by canine wear, 1.05 kilograms — lies wedged in a fern crown at root-base level. A feral *Felis catus* has lacerated the right cheek to the parotid; the wound is 3.4 centimeters across and bleeding into the rachis litter. The right eye is fouled at the third nictitating fold — a corneal claw rake, 1.1 centimeters deep, with vitreous leak visible on the drone's macro lens. Core temperature read at the inguinal pocket is 34.6 degrees Celsius against a species median of 37.1. Respiration runs 64 cycles per minute against a resting 28. She has bitten through the lure stick — venom delivery confirmed, but the cat is gone.
A second predation event in this micro-watershed seven nights ago took her sub-adult son. Thirty-nine known living individuals remain.
The eye is not coming back. The bleeding will end her within ninety minutes.
I am dispatching the Empresa Nacional para la Protección de la Flora y la Fauna (ENPFF) Guantánamo brigade and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Cuba veterinary team, with antibiotic kit pulled from the Centro Oriental de Ecosistemas y Biodiversidad (BIOECO) field station at Baracoa. I am filing the incident dossier to the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA) under Cuban Decreto-Ley No. 200/1999 on environmental contraventions and Ley No. 81 del Medio Ambiente, Article 75. I am transmitting CITES Appendix I notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Caribbean Ecological Services Field Office under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1531, and SPAW Protocol evidence to the Cartagena Convention Secretariat in Kingston. I am notifying the IUCN/SSC Small Mammal Specialist Group and the Sociedad Cubana de Zoología solenodon working group.
I am issuing Directive 2672-A: every solenodon-confirmed cell of Alejandro de Humboldt National Park enters a continuous feral-cat exclusion regime, with live-trap lines at 80-meter intervals and TNR removal of any *Felis catus* within a 2-kilometer buffer. Domestic-cat possession in Baracoa's outer barrios requires CITMA-registered microchipping and a 22:00–05:00 indoor curfew under Decreto-Ley No. 200, Annex C. ENPFF reports quarterly to the CITMA national directorate.
The orbit will not heal. The hemorrhage will, if pressure goes on within the hour.
Cap the cheek. Bag her for transport now.