2023-06-27 04:31:12
According to the latest monitoring carried out by scientists from Argentina and Brazil, in the Alto Paraná Atlantic Forest (made up of the Misiones jungle and the Iguaçu and Turvo Parks), there are less than one hundred jaguars. Although in recent years it has been possible to increase the population, which in 2005 was estimated at just 40 specimens, the species continues to be in danger of extinction. For this reason, Argentine scientists working in the Yaguareté Project program work on the conservation of the largest feline in the American continent. The initiative is part of the Atlantic Forest Research Center and most of its members belong to the Conicet and the National University of Misiones.
“Large predators play a key role in ecosystems. Among other things, because they have a regulatory effect on the populations of their prey and medium-sized predators. If they are not there, an imbalance occurs that triggers a lot of cascading effects”, explains Agustín Paviolo, a CONICET researcher and coordinator of the Yaguareté Project.
The main threats that affect the survival of the jaguar have to do with illegal hunting and the loss of habitat, which has undergone changes in the last two centuries with the advance of the agricultural frontier over forests and jungles. Before, the jaguar reached the banks of the Río Negro, the border between the Pampas and northern Patagonia.
The work team was born in 2002 and the group grew until it reached twenty members. Most are biologists but there are also veterinarians, park rangers, communicators and a photographer. Its actions, which extend through the Misiones jungle, the Chaco region and the Iberá estuaries, consist of carrying out periodic monitoring of the populations, evaluating and mitigating threats, developing habitat conservation strategies and carrying out environmental education campaigns.
Without them noticing
It is not easy to see a jaguar, not even for researchers. In addition to the low population density, they are solitary, nocturnal, and elusive. One way to study them is by placing GPS collars on some animals to be able to carry out satellite tracking. “Since we monitor them intensively, we know a lot about them. It’s almost as if we know them,” says the researcher.
Researchers from the Yaguareté Project carry out the population monitoring study every two years, together with Brazilian colleagues from the Onças do Iguaçu Project. They have the support of organizations such as Fundación Vida Silvestre, the World Conservation Organization of Brazil and government institutions. The study covers more than 580,000 hectares in the two countries and has 224 sampling stations equipped with camera traps.
These are photographic equipment that are activated by a temperature and movement sensor: when a warm-blooded animal passes in front of them, it takes a photo or records a video. “After 30 days, we go to look for the cameras, we download the material and we move them to different locations”, explains Paviolo.
The next task is to find the photos and videos in which a jaguar appears and identify it. “We individualize them because the pattern of spots on the fur is unique to each animal, like our fingerprints,” he adds. Based on the number of specimens counted, they use mathematical models to make an estimate of the total population.
The first monitoring carried out by the team was in 2005 and yielded a population of 40 jaguars. Thanks to conservation efforts, the number gradually increased until reaching 90 specimens in 2016. Since then, the number has remained stable.
An environmental, political and social problem
Currently, researchers are working to reintroduce the jaguar in the Iberá Wetlands. This is an initiative of the Rewilding Argentina Foundation where the Yaguareté Project participates in advising and monitoring the changes that occur at the ecosystem level. “We take as much information as possible so that we can tell the world what happens when a large predator returns. We are very excited about everything we are going to learn in this process”, indicates the researcher.
It also points out that, in order to achieve the goal of conserving the jaguar and ecosystems in general, it is important that existing environmental protection laws are adequately implemented. “The protection tools are there, but there is also a lot of pressure from the agricultural sector to transform forests into lands suitable for livestock and crops. This not only has a very large impact on biodiversity but also on local populations. Environmental problems are also political and social”, says Paviolo.
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