This is a day to acknowledge and celebrate all the world’s wild animals and indigenous plants
and the contribution that they make to our lives and the health of the planet. This particular date
was chosen as it is the birthdate of CITES which is the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, signed in 1973.
To celebrate this day we would like to shine a spotlight on our jaguar project which is stationed
in the Brazilian Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland and the best location in the world for
wildlife tourists to come observe jaguars in their natural environment.
Jaguars
Jaguars or Panthera onca can weigh up to 250 pounds and have a life span of 12 -15 years;
their size is relevant to a 6th man! Jaguars are the only indigenous big cat in the Americas and
are the third largest cat in the world. The Jaguar and the Leopard are often confused with one
another due to their similar markings. The difference lies in the center of the Jaguars rosettes,
because unlike the leopard, the Jaguar has spots inside of its rosettes!
Near threatened species
According to the IUCN red list Panthera onca is near threatened “due to a suspected 20-25%
decline over the past three generations (21 years) in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence,
and habitat quality, along with actual or potential levels of exploitation. Given the inherent
difficulty of assessing this species, the normally low density with which it occupies the
landscape and the effects that small population and habitat degradations can have on the
species, our minimum assessment of population decrease could be a significant underestimate.
Since the previous Red List assessment in 2008, the threats to Jaguars have continued or
intensified. The first expert mapping of Jaguar range took place in 2002 (Sanderson et al.
2002)”.
Our project and partners are starting a new project located at a cattle ranch and eco lodge
called Pousada Piuval. Their ranch/lodge is located only 10km from a large city with 40k
population of 40k. Since 2017 there has been occasional camera traps and monitoring however
since the launch of this new project there have been 12 individual jaguars identified who use
this land. The challenge about this lodge is that they are surrounded by ranchers who aren’t
involved with eco tourism, and who are not necessarily jaguar friendly and are annually losing
their livestock to jaguar and or puma. Our goal is to increase our presence, by giving talks and
workshops, and build a program where neighboring ranches pledge to be jaguar friendly and
stop killing jaguars.
How to take act
Our partners need more camera trap equipment to help build this extensive grid which follows
the best scientific methods suggested to obtain population density information for jaguars. Their
team has 12 function camera traps and we were lent 22 camera traps from Panthera
Foundation. Out of the 32 cameras only 22 are working properly. They need 20 camera trap
stations, meaning 2 cameras for each station, which is a total of 40 cameras. The total cost
would be GPB1500.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. “ Dr
Zeus
