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Helping fill crucial knowledge gaps about jaguars

WildCRU is helping fill crucial knowledge gaps about jaguars across their range, informing conservation and land-use planning as well as supporting community education activities and fostering coexistence between people and carnivores. Jaguar research is currently being done by four WildCRU members:

Guilherme C Alvarenga from Brazil is developing the first modelled assessment of jaguar population connectivity based on empirical data across the species’ entire geographical range.

Also from Brazil, Dr Carol Sartor and her collaborators’ work in conservation genomics has contributed to the understanding of how habitat alteration impacts jaguar population connectivity and genetic diversity. This is part of her extensive work in species population genetic and connectivity modelling.

Lucero Vaca Leon from Mexico is researching jaguar behaviour in and around the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, using accelerometers to assess their movements and energy usage for different activities. She is also using camera-traps to learn about wild prey abundance.

Professor Claudio Sillero and colleagues in Argentina established ‘Jaguars in the Fringe‘ to protect these big cats in the Yungas forests at the southernmost edge of their range. Through innovative protection of livestock, the initiative promotes coexistence and fosters the species’ recolonisation of former range. Featured here in the third image panel, a camera captured a glimpse of a jaguar 70km southeast of their usual home. Professor Sillero says, “We can only guess where the jaguar came from or where it was heading, but this elusive sighting suggests their range is extending!”