This week we captured this fabulous female jaguar (Panthera onca, onça-pintada).
The procedure was made together with the Jaguar Conservation Fund. It took us 3 days, 6 dogs and 12 people to track her down. The team consisted of vets, biologists, trackers and field guides.
Finally we found her on November 18th, at only 1 km away from the farm houses. She fell asleep with an anesthetic for a few hours and thus enabled us to take blood samples for DNA and disease analysis, collect ticks and other parasites and measure all biometric data. At the end we "equipped" her with a light-weight radio collar that will now transmit us her position non-stop over the next 3 years.
Some of you might ask why we are doing this to such an amazing animal. Here is a quick and partial answer:
Jaguars are the most elusive of the big cats, very difficult to watch in free range and thus most of their behaviour, ecological role and necessities are poorly understood.
They are "umbrella species" and require large areas to maintain viable populations. The protection of their habitat will protect the habitat and populations of "passenger species" therein contained, from simple bacterias to highly evolved marsh dears for example. Therefore, caring for the conservation of the jaguar is equivalent to a broad environmental conservation.
It is only possible to preserve such an animals existence if you know and understand as much as possible about it. With radio telemetry we will be able to learn about a jaguars territory size, how much gallery forest (along the river), other forests and open grasslands it requires to survive. Where is its core area ? When does it move more ? Where are its preferred hunting grounds ? Where does it move to during the rainy season, when the river floods its banks and plains ? How does it live with human presence ? How does it interact with livestock ?
Why did we choose this particular female ?
Because she is an animal that has shown us that she can perfectly well live close and together with human presence. For the last 4 years we have very often seen her tracks in our "backyard". Only 2 weeks ago she walked through a herd of 350 young cows where hunted down a wild boar. She could easily have killed a cow but her instinct is strong enough to go after her "natural prey". Being a female jaguar, we will also learn a lot about her off-spring. In addition, females are more resident and less prone to territorial fights.
And last but not least poachers tend to avoid collared jaguars.
These are some of the questions and answers we have for the moment. If you want to know more please feel free to ask us directly: barrancoalto@gmail.com
Cabyparas (Hydrochoerus Hydrochaeris, capivara) are one of the most abundant bigger native wildlife species here in the Pantanal. They are rodents and live in close proximity to the water; on the back of one of them you see a cattle tyrant (Machetornis rixosus, suiriri-cavaleiro). The plants are water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes, aguapé).
This wonderful bird is the golden-collared macaw (Primolius auricollis), one of our smallest macaws. They live in smaller flocks and are very gregarious, eating seeds and fruits of different trees, prefering the bush savannas over dense forest.
We had a very good and on-time rainy season start in October, but then towards mid-November the rains ceased and at the moment we are facing a relatively severe drought. Some lakes that we have never seen dry this year lost all their water.But in general the Pantanal's nature is adapted to these weather conditions. As a matter of fact, some parts of it even flourish, like these concentrations of black-bellied and white-faced whistling ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis and Dendrocygna viduata).
Today we went a step further exploring the grounds across the river on Santa Tomazia. There some extensive lakes and vazantes are just drying out so that you can walk without drowning between caymans ! There we found jaguar tracks right away, fresh after the last rain. As we were hiking we heard southern screamers (Chauna torquata) and chachalacas (Ortalis canicollis, arancuã-do-Pantanal) screaming, capybaras (Hydrochoerus Hydrochaeris) calling alarm. Then suddenly I noticed a sound similar to a "motorbike" accelerating several times. And finally there she was again ! In the diffuse light of a late afternoon and a wonderful full moon coming out magically we spotted her… together with her lover ! Two jaguars mating, 100 meters from us ! We were as excited as they probably were ! In the moonlight we could see her white belly as she rolled over the ground. We watched them for some minutes and as he disappeared we saw her walking at the border of the lake towards our truck.Quietly we went to the car and sat there in absolute silence as we heard the couple bellowing in the thick bush. I started to call them with loud and characteristic vocalizations made solely with my voice. After 5 minutes she came out of the bush 25 meters from us and I lit up the search light on her. There she was again for 10 seconds in full splendour ... What a brilliant sighting !!!
