Romance, rivalry, & resilience: Jaguars clash and thrive in the Pantanal’s wild wetlands

Romance, rivalry, & resilience: Jaguars clash and thrive in the Pantanal’s wild wetlands

Third-biggest cat on Earth, muscular and low-slung, boasting one heck of a chomp, the jaguar reigns supreme atop the wild Neotropical food web. And while catching a glimpse of this burly beast across much of its forested range is no easy feat, the Pantanal –the “Kingdom of Waters,” world’s biggest freshwater tropical wetland and a […]

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‘Losing Noah’s Ark’: Brazil’s plan to turn the Pantanal into waterway threatens world’s biggest wetland

‘Losing Noah’s Ark’: Brazil’s plan to turn the Pantanal into waterway threatens world’s biggest wetland

As the evening sky turns violet, the animals of the Pantanal gather near the water. Capybaras swim in tight formation, roseate spoonbills add smudges of pink to the riverbanks, the rumble of a jaguar pulsates from the forest. This tropical wetland is the largest on Earth, stretching across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, and playing host […]

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Shrimp farms threaten Mexico’s mangroves and the jaguars that inhabit them

Shrimp farms threaten Mexico’s mangroves and the jaguars that inhabit them

Among the spindly saline roots of the mangrove trees that line western Mexico’s coast, the jaguar is the ecosystem’s apex predator. Yet despite being at the top of the food chain, its existence is threatened by the abundance of another, much smaller species: the whiteleg shrimp. Aquaculture of whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), or Pacific white […]

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