Satellite imagery reveals several areas of primary rainforest were cleared alongside agricultural fields in the Brazilian Amazon, all in close proximity to Indigenous and protected lands. In March, the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) lab at the University of Maryland detected areas of newly cleared forest in Lábrea municipality, in the state of Amazonas. […]
Tag: Panthera onca
In Colombia, a successful jaguar conservation program has a whiff of coffee
Fires had a devastating effect in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in Colombia’s Caribbean region, between 2012 and 2013. In 2013 alone, the region lost an estimated that 22,000 hectares (54,400 acres) of forest, mainly due to fires, according to CORPAMAG, the environmental authority for the department of Magdalena. At almost the same time, […]
Electronic ears listen to poachers in a key Central American jaguar habitat
A gunshot explodes through the rainforest, followed by what sounds like branches falling from a tree. A dog barks. “Tito, did I hit it?” a man asks his companion in Spanish. “Oh yes, I did hit it. Look, there is blood dripping. I shot it from over there.” These sounds were recorded on an […]
Cat corridors between protected areas is key to survival of Cerrado’s jaguars
With no natural predators to worry about, jaguars (Panthera onca) roam the forests of South and Central America. This feline is found in 18 countries, but only 4% of its critical habitat is effectively protected. The lack of protection has allowed its habitat to be destroyed and fragmented, the main reason why this emblematic species […]
The Amazon’s short-eared dog was thought to be a scavenger. Now there’s video
In 2016, conservation biologist Holly O’Donnell was striding through the Amazon rainforest in southwestern Peru, recording every mammal she saw or heard while performing a line transect survey for the Peruvian NGO Fauna Forever. A few minutes into her walk, she smelled something fetid. Following the scent several meters off the trail, she found the […]
For the Pantanal’s jaguars, fires bring ‘death by a thousand needle wounds’
Fernando Tortato usually spends his time scanning camera trap footage to monitor jaguars in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, a region that sprawls across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. But for the past 45 days, he’s taken on a new role as a firefighter, sometimes working grueling 24-hour shifts to help extinguish the flames […]
Is Chinese investment driving a sharp increase in jaguar poaching?
A decapitated jaguar found floating in a river by a scientist doing fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon; a dead jaguar spotted on the highway between Boa Vista and Manaus, its carcass first observed whole by the side of the road, later seen without its head or paws; dozens of media reports documenting the seizure of […]
A jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” the first known to cross between Belize and Guatemala
An adult male jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” (due to his partially missing tail) was caught on camera in both Belize and Guatemala, making him the first individual confirmed to cross the international boundary between the two countries. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists published their observation in CATnews, the newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group, a component […]