Save a Jaguar. Treat Your Cows Well
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Conservationists hope to save the Jaguar, the Western Hemisphere’s biggest cat, by improving cattle management in Brazil’s biodiverse Pantanal.
By Brian Clark Howard
Conservationists in Brazil`s biodiverse Pantanal hope to save the Jaguar by improving cattle management.
It was moments after twilight on a pleasant September night in the Brazilian portion of the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland and a place that rivals tropical rainforests for biodiversity.
Insects whizzed by as the safari vehicle bounced down a dirt road, its guides systematically panning the dark rice paddies and intermittent patches of riparian forest with powerful flashlights. We had just seen two ocelots — one bent over an irrigation canal, swishing a paw in the water to stir up an evening snack.
We passed a foraging giant anteater and saw a crab-eating raccoon (which had shorter fur than the northern version, but a similar mask), a large striped owl and a pair of crab-eating foxes. A guide excitedly pointed to rustling in some tall grasses. Another guide translated the Portuguese: a rare maned wolf. I think I caught a flash of fur in the grass but blinked, and it was gone.
Impressive as these sightings were, what most people who sign up for this safari hope to see is the jaguar, Panthera onca, the third-largest cat in the world and the biggest in the Western Hemisphere.
This was certainly true for the Brazilian tourists on the bench seat next to me, who were adjusting the telephoto lenses on their expensive cameras when the vehicle screeched to a stop. “Jaguar,” a guide whispered as he shone his flashlight across a canal. An enormous cat emerged from the shadowy forest.
Apparently unbothered by the light, the jaguar padded slowly along the bank, giving a clear view of its beautiful spotted coat. “A big male,” our German-born guide, Ulli Braun, whispered. The jaguar flopped on the ground, scanning the horizon like a sphinx. Something seemed to catch his eye in the distance. And he bounded off.
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