Bolivia - conservation success for jaguars

Jaguar cubs photo shows conservation success in Bolivia

1,000 jaguars live in the vast bi-national Gran Chaco Jaguar Conservation Unit spanning southern Bolivia and northern Paraguay


December 2011. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has released a dramatic photo of a female jaguar and her two cubs taken near the Isoso Station of the Santa Cruz-Puerto Suarez Gas Pipeline in Kaa Iya National Park in Bolivia. The adult jaguar, nicknamed Kaaiyana, has been seen with her cubs in the area over the last month, and WCS conservationists have confirmed she has been a resident in the vicinity for at least six years.

"Kaaiyana's tolerance of observers is a testimony to the absence of hunters in this area, and her success as a mother means there is plenty of food for her and her cubs to eat," said Dr. John Polisar, Coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Jaguar Conservation Program.

Kaa Iya National Park
At more than 13,200 square miles (34,400 square kilometers), Kaa Iya National Park is the largest protected area in Bolivia and safeguards the most expansive and best-conserved dry forest in the world. It is found in a transition zone between Chacoan and Chiquitano dry forest ecosystems and includes unique vegetation and rare wildlife such as giant armadillos, Chacoan titi monkeys, and Chacoan peccaries. The creation of Kaa Iya in 1995 marked the first time in South America that a protected area was established through the initiative of an indigenous group, the Guaraní-Isoceño people.

Gran Chaco Jaguar Conservation Unit
WCS has conducted extensive research in the area and estimates that at least 1,000 jaguars live in the Gran Chaco Jaguar Conservation Unit, a 47,000 square-mile (124,000 square kilometer) area spanning southern Bolivia and northern Paraguay. With support from the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation, WCS is promoting conservation action across the Gran Chaco.

The construction of the 1,900-mile (3,100 kilometer) Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline that cuts across Kaa Iya National Park and the Isoso indigenous land required developing institutional alliances to minimize environmental impacts. With the participation of private energy companies, which make up Gas TransBoliviano (GTB), as well as the Isoso indigenous organization, and an independent member, the Kaa Iya Foundation was created in 2003 as a mechanism to deliver a match with WCS funds to conduct wildlife research and environmental education in the park, which is funded and managed by the Bolivian government.

Jaguar surveys
Among the research efforts first supported by the foundation were jaguar surveys. Kaayiana was first detected by WCS researcher Dr. Andrew Noss at the Isoso site in 2005 with male jaguars, and again in 2006 with a cub. The Kaa Iya park guards work with GTB personnel to prevent illegal hunting and settlements along the right-of-way to the gas pipeline and ensure the protection of wildlife, including jaguar prey, in the park.

"The photographic histories of jaguars in the area by WCS and the reproductive success of this female are testimony that conservation efforts have been effective," said Julie Kunen, WCS Director of Latin America and Caribbean Programs.

The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. They do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes toward nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth.

Jaguars
The jaguar is considered near threatened by the IUCN and numbers are declining, mostly due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Despite protection, jaguars are often killed by humans, particularly in conflicts with ranchers and farmers.

Jaguars traditionally ranged from the southern USA to southern Argentina, but their range has been much reduced, and there are few left in Mexico, and at the most 1-2 in USA.

Steppes Discovery run tours to see jaguars in Brazil and other places.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/jaguar-cubs.html

Rare jaguar sighted in southern Arizona

For the first time since 2009, an endangered jaguar has been found roaming the wilds of southern Arizona. The jaguar was photographed by a hunter last weekend. Subsequently, Arizona Game and Fish biologists confirmed the sighting and identified the cat as healthy male, weighing about 200 pounds.

“It’s heartening to see that at least one jaguar is back in southern Arizona,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Jaguars are an integral part of the mountains, deserts and forests of the Southwest where they have lived for many thousands of years. They are stunning animals that fascinate the imagination and help maintain the health of their prey and habitat.”

The jaguar sighting came afer the cat was treed by a hunter’s hounds over the weekend. The hunter is reported to have retrieved his dogs and gave the jaguar space to escape.

The last known jaguar in Arizona, named “Macho B,” died after being illegally trapped by a contractor for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Macho B roamed Arizona from 1996 to 2009, but was never known to have mated. 

The jaguar is the largest cat native to the western hemisphere, and the third largest globally, after tigers and lions. Jaguars are known to have roamed the southern U.S. from California to Louisiana. The last female jaguar in the U.S. was killed in 1963 in east-central Arizona, and no jaguar reproduction has been documented in the U.S. since then.


“Jaguars live and breed south of the border in Mexico and have repeatedly recolonized habitat in the southwestern United States,” said Robinson. “If we give them a chance and keep their movement corridors unobstructed, it is only a matter of time before we will have breeding animals in the U.S.”

Advocacy by the Center for Biological Diversity resulted in jaguars getting on the endangered species list in the U.S. in 1997, after decades of delay, and in garnering a court order requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a jaguar recovery plan and designate critical habitat where the jaguar’s recovery will be prioritized. A draft recovery plan and draft critical habitat rule are both expected next year.

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/11/21/biodiversity-rare-jaguar-sighted-in-southern-arizona/

Scientists use Calvin Klein cologne to lure jaguars

Reuters
Posted at 06/13/2010 8:48 AM | Updated as of 06/13/2010 8:48 AM

GUATEMALA CITY – Biologists tracking jaguars in the Guatemalan jungle might smell nice but it's all in the name of science, with researchers finding the Calvin Klein cologne Obsession for Men attracts big cats.

Biologists Rony Garcia and Jose Moreira from the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Jaguar Conservation Program say they use hidden cameras as a primary source for observing and tracking jaguars in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve.

But they also rely on Obsession for Men, a cologne known for its complex scent, to help lure then research and hopefully ultimately preserve jaguars in the Central American country.

"The method we are using to study the jaguars here in Guatemala is a non-invasive method which is based on photographing the individuals by using camera traps," Moreira told Reuters Television.

"It has been very useful using Obsession (for Men) to get the jaguars in front of these camera traps ... and that allows us to estimate with greater confidence the genders and the numbers that live in each studied site."

The discovery that Obsession for Men acted as a magnet for jaguars was the result of an experiment by the WCS's Bronx Zoo in New York.

The WCS was looking for ways to get cheetahs in front of camera traps, and, after several years of testing with different fragrances, found spraying the musky Obsession For Men near the heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras drew the cats for longer than other scents.

They also tried out about 23 other fragrances but Obsession for Men kept the cats' attention for longest with Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps coming second.

The practice made its way down to Guatemala, where Garcia and Moreira said they have been recording similar success in the wild since 2007, allowing them to track jaguars and even record their mating rituals.

Garcia said the results will be invaluable to conservation efforts.

"These camera traps help us to identify how many jaguars are living in this area ... (and) helps us to have control over the population and lets us say to the government, to the public, that Laguna del Tigre still deserves conservation," he said.

The WCS said it tentatively plans to expand the use of the cologne in programs in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in coming years.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/classified-odd/06/13/10/scientists-use-calvin-klein-cologne-lure-jaguars

Big Cats Obsess Over Calvin Klein's 'Obsession for Men'

JUNE 8, 2010

A Certain Animal Magnetism Makes the Fragrance a Hit With Zoos

By ELLEN BYRON

To wine and dine Sasha, a 450-pound Siberian tiger at the Bronx Zoo, try serving beef and rabbit. To lure him for a snack, whip out the frozen treats his zookeepers call "bloodcicles." But to really get his olfactory engines running, you need the secret weapon: Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men.

Zoos have long spritzed perfumes and colognes on rocks, trees and toys in an effort to keep confined animals curious.

In 2003, Pat Thomas, general curator for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo in New York, decided to get scientific about it. Working with 24 fragrances and two cheetahs, he recorded how long it took the big cats to notice the scent and how much time they spent interacting with it.

The results left barely a whiff of a doubt. Estée Lauder's Beautiful occupied the cheetahs on average for just two seconds. Revlon's Charlie managed 15.5 seconds. Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps took it up to 10.4 minutes. But the musky Obsession for Men triumphed: 11.1 minutes. That's longer than the cats usually take to savor a meal.

"Oh, yeah, he loves that scent," Mr. Thomas said as Sasha blissfully cuddled up to a tree sprayed with Obsession for Men. "Just look at him."

Mr. Thomas's findings spread quickly through the Wildlife Conservation Society's network of global operations. Now, Obsession is widely used not only in zoos, but in the field, where it has helped produce breakthroughs in wildlife biology and conservation.

As it happens, big cats of all stripes are obsessive when it comes to the scent. Roan Balas McNab, a Wildlife Conservation Society program director in Guatemala, has been using Obsession for Men since 2007 to help study jaguars in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a protected tropical forest spanning 8,100 square miles.

One of his goals is determining the size of the jaguar population. But the reclusive habits that made the jungle cats an object of reverence for the Maya people also make them difficult to count. In his 14 years working in the reserve, Mr. McNab says he has had only one random spotting of a jaguar.

He and his colleagues rely on heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras stationed along animal trails in the jungle. If they can get jaguars to linger, they can identify individual animals by their unique spot patterns, which are then loaded into a database, much like fingerprint records.

"But this technique is only effective if animals pass through the cameras' detection range and we get adequate photos," Mr. McNab says. Pre-Obsession, some 30% to 40% of the photos were inconclusive.

After hearing through a colleague of Mr. Thomas's scent test, Mr. McNab's field biologists began spraying Obsession for Men near their cameras. Researchers squirted the cologne onto a rag tied to a stake in the ground. The elusive jaguars, which scientists say can detect smells from up to a kilometer away, crept forth. Three times as many of the cats walked by camera stands spiked with the cologne than those without it. Camera footage showed curious cats sauntering up to the scented rag, sniffing it, then lingering nearby. That diversion gave researchers the chance to get clear, full shots of the jaguars and their spot patterns.

Beyond mere counting, the jaguar survey project has begun to capture rarely seen jaguar mating rituals, including a male's coy nipping and days-long pursuit of a potential partner.

"We're just starting to get an idea of how jaguars behave in their habitat," Mr. McNab says. "Before we used Obsession for Men we weren't able to get these images at all."

Obsession for Men launched in 1986, just as the Calvin Klein brand was pushing the boundaries of sexuality in advertising. Early ads typically featured nude models and little else. Today, it remains among the Top 10 best-selling men's fragrances world-wide. The cologne, which is made and marketed under license by privately held Coty Inc., posted sales of about $85.5 million last year, according to estimates by market-data firm Euromonitor International Inc.

The Wildlife Conservation Society says it has shared its research results with Coty, but has not asked the beauty company for sponsorship or product donations. A spokeswoman for Coty declined to comment.

Ann Gottlieb, the "nose" who helped create Obsession for Men, thinks there could be a number of factors in the fragrance that wild animals might find irresistible.

"It's a combination of this lickable vanilla heart married to this fresh green top note—it creates tension," she says. The cologne also has synthetic "animal" notes like civet, a musky substance secreted by the cat of the same name, giving it particular sex appeal, she adds. "It sparks curiosity with humans and, apparently, animals."

The Wildlife Conservation Society's Jaguar Conservation Program plans to expand the use of Obsession for Men to more of its population studies, tentatively scheduled for next year in sections of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. "I'd like to use this in every survey that we're involved with," says program coordinator John Polisar.

Obsession works so well that Mr. McNab hesitated at first to reveal its potency, fearing poachers would also use it. But he decided that spreading the word to other scientists outweighed the potential risk, particularly since poachers already use their own effective bait—dead animals—a tactic researchers' ethics forbid.

The challenge for researchers is finding enough of the stuff, given the cologne's price of about $60 and scarcity in shops near the rainforest. Mr. McNab has made a habit of checking duty free shops during his international trips just in case he can snag a good price. He asks friends and colleagues to bring along a bottle when they travel to the region.

The Bronx Zoo relies on donations to keep up its supplies. Stella Miller, president of the Huntington-Oyster Bay chapter of the Audubon Society on Long Island, N.Y., says she has donated about 300 bottles of fragrance, collected from friends and acquaintances over the past five years.

At the zoo, keeper Michelle Medina stores about a dozen fragrances in a large plastic pail amid her supplies for the large Tiger Mountain exhibit. During a recent visit, her sample-sized bottle of Obsession for Men was almost empty.

To keep her cats content, "I'll need to find more of this," she says.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256452390636786.html
(Submitted by D.R. Shoop)

Rare wild jaguar spotted just south of the border

Posted: Feb 16, 2010 1:10 PM

Posted by First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan

TUCSON, AZ (SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE) – The Sky Island Alliance (SIA) released today its first photographs of a northern jaguar in the Mexican State of Sonora.

Three years into a conservationist-rancher partnership, a jaguar was photographed by a remote camera placed along an isolated canyon of the Sonoran Sky Islands.

These are SIA's first photographs of this elusive cat, and were taken only thirty miles south of the US/Mexico border.

"Northern jaguars are a reality and they want to stay" said Sky Island Alliance biologist Sergio Avila. "Jaguars don't recognize political boundaries; instead they choose robust prey populations, open space and safe corridors. This healthy feline represents our chance to recover this species in the region."

In the last three years Sky Island Alliance has surveyed northern Sonora, documenting a wide array of native wildlife species thriving in riparian, desert and oak woodland habitats.

Working in partnership with Mexican ranchers, the group seeks to protect wild felid habitat, allowing species to roam free in a network of conservation ranches.

"We are thrilled about the results of this collaborative project," said Carlos R. Elias, co-owner of El Aribabi, the ranch where the photographs were taken. "Our family has worked hard to restore ecological processes in this land. We hope this gets the attention of government agencies and foundations, so we can establish a sustainable model that protects biodiversity and supports landowners and their families at the same time."

To support the recovery of this endangered tropical cat in the Sky Island region, migration corridors must be protected, linking key habitat cores between Mexico and the United States.

Additionally, the protection of jaguar habitat benefits a range of less prominent endangered species as well.

The Sky Island region of northwest Mexico and southwest United States is a unique blend of temperate and tropical biological zones and species, and was named a World Biodiversity Hotspot by Conservation International in 2005.

El Aribabi hosts over 35 species of plants and animals protected by Mexican law, including jaguars, golden eagles, Chiricahua leopard frogs and ocelots.

In the first month of the remote camera project, February, 2007, ocelots were documented at this ranch.

Ocelots are another elusive, protected tropical cat whose northernmost range reaches northern Sonora.

These were the first photographs of ocelots ever documented in the region and the first documented sighting in 40 years.

"The jaguar's presence in this area confirms the excellent ecological conditions on the property and highlights the landowner's efforts to protect biodiversity," Avila said. "Jaguars in northern Mexico are the hope for jaguar recovery in the United States; this is a reminder of our responsibility and an opportunity to do things right this time."

Sky Island Alliance is a grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the rich natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Island region of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

We work with volunteers, scientists, land owners, public officials, and government agencies to establish protected areas, restore healthy landscapes, and promote public appreciation of the region's unique biological diversity.

For additional information on this program, please call Sergio Avila, Northern Mexico Program Coordinator, at (520) 624-7080 x 16; Sergio@skyislandalliance.org or visit: www.skyislandalliance.org/jaguars.htm

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=11990760
(Submitted by Chad Arment)

Jaguar mums give up baby secrets

14:33 GMT, Friday, 29 May 2009 15:33 UK
Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

Jaguars are one of the most elusive of large animals, reluctant to be filmed or tracked in their natural habitat.

But now biologists have finally managed to learn one of the big cat's secrets; how often it gives birth.

An ongoing study in Costa Rica, one of the last strongholds of the jaguar, has revealed that females in the wild give birth every 22 to 24 months.

Knowing the reproductive behaviour of the species will be vital information in helping to protect the species.

Numbers of jaguars, the third largest of all cat species and the largest in the New World, are declining.

The big cat is occasionally sighted in Arizona and New Mexico in the US, and populations remain within Mexico and south through Central America and into South America, including much of Amazonian Brazil.

But the species is listed as Near Threatened by the World Conservation Union.

If conservationists are to estimate how the last remaining populations of jaguar might grow, they need to know three things: how many cubs females have in each litter, how many of those cubs survive on average, and how often females give birth to new litters.

But most information about the reproductive habits of jaguars comes from observations in zoos, which may not reflect how jaguars reproduce in the wild. Even in captivity, researchers have been rarely able to document how often females give birth to new litters.

So Eduardo Carrillo and Joel Saenz of the National University in Heredia, Costa Rica and Todd Fuller of the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, US embarked on an ongoing study of jaguars living in the Corcovado National Park in west Costa Rica.

The study began in 1990 after Carrillo saw a female jaguar walking with a single cub across a beach in the park during the day.

"At that time there were few jaguar studies and the lack of information was an important issue when making management decisions about jaguar conservation," says Carrillo. "So in 1994 we decided to radio mark jaguars. In 2003 we began using camera traps."

During the study, they found that jaguars in the park feed mainly on peccaries and marine turtles.

The diet surprised the biologists because an adult jaguar is capable of eating any animal that crosses its path, including people, though there is no record of a wild jaguar ever having attacked a person in the wild.

They also managed to follow a single female jaguar for three and a half years, by using the radio collar to triangulate her position and identifying her particular paw prints left in the mud.

In March one year, they saw the female being attended to by an adult male. By late May or early June she gave birth, and was seen accompanied by a single cub in July.

That cub remained with its mother for 19 to 20 months. Then some 22 months after she had first given birth, Carrillo noticed she was again pregnant, and was seen with a new cub a month or two later.

That confirms that wild jaguars seem to give birth once every 22 to 24 months, and that juvenile jaguars leave the company of their mother after 18 to 24 months, the team report in the journal Mammalian Biology.

Jaguars are thought to give birth to more than cub on average, though it is unclear how many usually survive until adulthood.

"One of the main questions about jaguars is their natural birthing habits," says Carrillo. "We have little knowledge about this until now."

However, despite the team's camera traps recording pictures of adult jaguars, the mothers are still proving protective of their offspring.

"We have pictures of pregnant females, but we have never taken a picture of a female jaguar with its cubs."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8074000/8074124.stm

Judge orders feds to reconsider help for jaguar

By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN, AP

TUCSON, Ariz. -A judge on Tuesday ordered federal wildlife officials to reconsider how to help endangered jaguars survive, saying the decision to not protect habitat for them was based on bad criteria and inconsistent with the Endangered Species Act.

The largest cats native to the Western hemisphere live primarily in Mexico, Central and South America. But they're known to roam in southern Arizona and New Mexico, and one was captured for the first time southeast of Tucson last month.

The Interior Department abandoned a recovery plan for the endangered species in 2008 after concluding too few of the cats had been spotted to warrant it. Its agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, contends U.S. land represents less than 1 percent of the species' range, so its survival depends on other nations.

U.S. District Judge John Roll said in his ruling that Fish and Wildlife did not use the best scientific evidence available in not establishing critical habitat for the species. He also cited inconsistency with the Endangered Species Act's mandate, Fish and Wildlife's own regulations and relevant case law.

"Denying the jaguar protection because it is overly endangered is an oxymoron," said Michael Robinson, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "That was the essence of the government's plan, that there are so few jaguars that they don't need a recovery plan. And the judge saw right through that."

The judge gave the federal agency until Jan. 8 to review his ruling and make a decision on designating critical habitat and preparing a recovery plan.

"The court recognized that this was going to be a difficult determination and therefore gave us nine months," Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jeff Humphrey said.

The jaguar caught in Arizona last month was outfitted with a satellite tracking collar, but was euthanized just a few weeks later because of symptoms of kidney failure.

Robinson said several so-called Sky Island mountain ranges in southern Arizona and New Mexico could be designated as critical habitat and recovery areas.

—

On the net:

Defenders of Wildlife: http://www.defenders.org/
Center for Biological Diversity: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/

http://news.aol.com/article/judge-orders-feds-to-reconsider-help-for/407616?icid=sphere_newsaol_inpage

Animal lover's house is really wild

By JOEL TAYLOR - Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Cheetahs lounging in the bedroom, a leopard stealing scraps from the kitchen and wolves roaming the garden? No, it's not the set of an amiable safari-based Sunday evening TV drama - it's Riana van Nieuwenhuizen's place.

The big cat lover sold everything she owned to turn her home into a haven for felines.

They have complete freedom to roam the house, often sleeping in their owner's bed and making a nuisance of themselves while she does chores.

Cheetah Fiela has even learned to open cupboards and drawers - and Ms van Nieuwenhuizen swears that licks from the big cat's tongue knock spots off even the best skin exfoliators.

'A beauty therapist once asked me about my skin products because I didn't have a single dead cell on my skin - I told her it was a cheetah's tongue,' she said. The 46-year-old became besotted with big cats as a child.

After realising she had failed to grow out of the obsession three years ago, she gave up her office job and sold her townhouse so she could buy a cheetah and move to a friend's game farm.

Her brood - reminiscent of the one on ITV's Wild At Heart drama - has been increasing ever since thanks to visitor donations and she now boasts nine cheetahs, three leopards, two wolves, a jaguar, a lion and three dogs. They chomp their way through 25kg (55lb) of meat a day.

'They all live together harmoniously,' said Ms van Nieuwenhuizen, of Bloemfontein, South Africa.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Animal_lovers_house_is_really_wild&in_article_id=605768&in_page_id=2&in_a_source=

Rare Jaguars Spotted in Arizona and Mexico

Robert Roy Britt
Editorial Director
LiveScience.com

The once-common jaguar has become a rare sight in North America, thanks to hunting and habitat fragmentation.

Now two were spotted in exceedingly rare and unrelated events this month.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department caught and collared a wild jaguar in Arizona for the first time, officials said Thursday. While a handful of the big cats have been photographed by automatic cameras in recent years, the satellite tracking collar will now help biologists learn more about this animal's range.

Meanwhile, a jaguar was spotted in central Mexico for the first time in a century. Scientists photographed the cat with an automatic camera set alongside a trail thought to be frequented by the spotted felines.

Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from southern South America to the southern United States. By the late 1900s, none were thought to exist north of Mexico, but two independent sightings in 1996 confirmed jaguars still reached as far north as Arizona and New Mexico. Remote cameras have also photographed jaguars in the Amazon.

The species has been protected outside of the United States under the Endangered Species Act since 1973. That protection was extended to jaguars in the United States in 1997, the year after their presence here was confirmed.

Details of the sightings below.

The Arizona cat

The male cat in Arizona was captured southwest of Tucson during a study aimed at monitoring habitat connectivity for mountain lions and black bears. The healthy beast weighed in at 118 pounds with a thick and solid build.

Satellite tracking showed the cat traveled more than 3 miles from the capture site in the first day after its release, officials said.

"While we didn't set out to collar a jaguar as part of the mountain lion and bear research project, we took advantage of an important opportunity," said Terry Johnson, endangered species coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "More than 10 years ago, Game and Fish attempted to collar a jaguar with no success. Since then, we've established handling protocols in case we inadvertently captured a jaguar in the course of one of our other wildlife management activities."

Biologists are trying to determine if the collared jaguar is Macho B, a male cat that has been photographed by trail cameras periodically over the past 13 years.

In 1997, a team was established in Arizona and New Mexico to protect and conserve the species. The Jaguar Conservation Team (JCT) began working with Mexico two years later, recognizing that the presence of jaguars in the United States depends on the conservation of the species in Mexico.

Interestingly, the project set up to do all this is funded by Arizona Lottery ticket sales.

The Mexico cat

No jaguars had been spotted in central Mexico since the start of the 20th century.

Scientists trying to find footprints, excrement or any other signs of the jaguars had in recent years interviewed residents, none of whom had ever seen one. Nonetheless, the researchers now report having obtained three photographs of a male jaguar and ten excrement samples that have been attributed to the jaguar, said Octavio Monroy-Vilchis of Autonomous University of the State of Mexico.

In a statement, researchers explained there are 15 areas in Mexico in which it is unknown whether jaguars still exist, whether their populations are stable, and if their habitat is adequate. These areas are important for scientific studies, because they could include crucial zones for the felines' long-term survival.

"The photographs provide information about new recording sites, and allow us to deduce that the area where the animal was observed may be a corridor connecting jaguar populations," Monroy-Vilchis said.

Largest cats

Jaguars are the only cats in North America that roar. They're considered the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere. Adults commonly weigh up to 211 pounds (96 kg), though 300-pounders have been reported. In the northern range they typically weigh between 80-120 pounds, however.

Females breed year-round and have litters of one to four cubs that stay with their mother for nearly two years.

Jaguars can live in several types of forest, grassland and dry habitat. They prey on a variety of animals, including fish, birds and reptiles. The largest contiguous area of habitat now remaining for jaguars centers in the Amazon Basin.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090222/sc_livescience/rarejaguarsspottedinarizonaandmexico

Jaguar spotted in central Mexico for first time in 100 years

10 February 2009 17:32 Plataforma SINC

The jaguar Panthera onca has become an animal in danger of extinction over recent decades, due to the fragmentation and deterioration of its habitat, as well as hunting and illegal animal smuggling. As a result of this vulnerability, no individuals have been seen in the centre of Mexico since the start of the 20th
Century. However, Mexican and Spanish scientists have now managed to photograph a male jaguar in this region.

The lack of published records about the jaguar Panthera onca in the State of Mexico and concerns about whether this animal may have become extinct in the forests of the 674.10 km2 Sierra Nanchititla Natural Reserve led to researchers from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) and the University of Alicante (UA) successfully seeking out and monitoring this feline.

The Mexican-Spanish research project, which has been published recently in The Southwestern Naturalist, includes the first documented recording of Panthera Onca in the centre of Mexico, in the Río Balsas river basin. "The photographs provide information about new recording sites, and allow us to deduce that the area where the
animal was observed may be a corridor connecting jaguar populations," Octavio Monroy-Vilchis, lead author and a researcher at the UAEM, tells SINC.

The researchers carried out 86 interviews with inhabitants of villages near the study area between October 2002 and December 2004, as well as collecting feline dropping samples and installing automatic photographic detection systems.

"Even though not one of the interviews mentioned sightings of jaguars, we obtained three photographs of a male, and ten of the 132 excrement samples found have been attributed to the jaguar", says Monroy-Vilchis.

According to members of the local Wildlife Conservation Society, the general area of the Río Balsas river basin is a priority area for verifying the presence of jaguars, since this "could act as a corridor for them to move around".

The experts say there are 15 areas in which it is unknown whether these animals still exist, whether their populations are stable, and if their habitat is adequate. These areas are important for scientific studies, because they could include crucial zones for the felines' long-term survival.

The jaguar's habitat, a limited territory Monitoring the largest feline in the Americas in the centre of Mexico meant the Mexican scientists had to travel 1,360 kilometres in search of clues and footprints. The Spanish researchers financed the cameras and analysed a total of 1,800 data events collected by them, which
were placed in the Natural Reserve.

Of all this material, only three photographs deposited with the image library of mammals in the Sierra Nanchititla Biological Station (UAEM) showed a male individual.

Despite the photographs taken, the researchers themselves were unable to see the animal. "The lack of evidence highlights the fact that the jaguar is more elusive than other felines, and that its presence in the area is sporadic - possibly because it has access to other resources near to Michoacán and Guerrero," says Monroy-Vilchis.

The recording of this individual and the presence of excrement in a range of sites in the south east of the State of Mexico now mean its known range has been extended to 400 km to the south east of Arroyo Seco (Querétano), 27 km to the north east of Purísima de Arista, and 140 km to the north of Puerto del Gallo (Guerrero).

According to the scientists, the fact that the animal was captured on film at 1,845 metres "supports the theory that jaguars travel along the sides of mountains because their habitat has been fragmented by hunting and other human activities", says the scientist.

http://www.plataformasinc.es

* Full bibliographic information: Monroy-Vilchis, O; Sánchez, O;
Aguilera-Reyes, U; Suárez, P; Urios, V. “Jaguar (Panthera onca) in
the State of Mexico” Southwestern Naturalist, 53(4): 533-537
diciembre de 2008.

Saving Jaguars, Tigers Can Prevent Human Diseases?

Ker Than in New York City
for National Geographic News
February 16, 2009

Jaguars and other big cats can protect humans from the rise of future pandemics akin to HIV and bird flu.

That's the message freshly trained "doctor conservationists" will be taking into the field as part of a new collaboration between a wildlife-protection nonprofit and a teaching hospital.

In Central and South America, jaguars are often labeled as "cattle killers" and are slaughtered on sight. The species is also at risk of declining genetic health as its habitat contracts and populations are cut off from each other. (See wild jaguar photos.)

"If the animals are forced to stay instead of travel, that can lead to a loss of fitness and create a cascade down the health ladder," said Alan Rabinowitz, president and CEO of the big-cat conservation group Panthera.

"Once that cascade has been set off, it has been shown through data to directly link to increases in disease among neighboring human populations."

Read the full story at National Geographic News