Care for the king of th jungle - Our Tiger - Dejá tu Huella

Return to Our tiger - Return to Home Page

TAKING CARE OF THE KING OF THE JUNGLE

1) A species in danger

The jaguar is a species protected by law. In our country (Argentina) it is one of the 500 species considered in danger of extinction. It has the highest legal protection status: in 2001 it was declared National Natural Monument. It also is Provincial Natural Monument in Chaco, Salta and in Misiones, the first province giving the species this status in 1988.

Why is the jaguar disappearing?

1) Habitat loss

One of the main causes of the decrease of jaguars is the loss of its habitat, resulting from deforestation. The jaguar needs lots of jungle in good state to subsist and to carry out its vital cycle: it is estimated that one jaguar needs between 7.000 (seven thousand) and 10.000 (ten thousand) hectares of jungle. This makes it an ‘umbrella species´, meaning that their tracks indicate the health of the forest: they show us that many other wild species that need less space to survive are also present.

At the moment, only a 7.8 percent of the 47.000.000 hectares of Upper Parana Atlantic Forest that had extended throughout Brazil, Paraguay and the whole province of Misiones in Argentina, are left. Nevertheless, Misiones is the province with the largest continuous forest areas, with almost a 50 percent of its surface covered by native forest. This means an opportunity for all the life that exists in this region and a huge responsibility for the people of Misiones

2) Wild animal hunting

In spite of being illegal, hunting is still a very common practice in Misiones province, with jaguars and other large wild animals as the most important prey. Hunting not only reduces the numbers of jaguars, but also critically reduces the food available to this feline.

3) Conflicts with farmers and livestock

The loss of native forest and the lack of prey available for them, increase the probability that jaguars enter rural areas and find their food as domestic cattle, becoming a problem for the farmers.
It’s no natural habit for felines to attack livestock animals. When this happens, it reflects some sort of imbalance in the local ecosystem. The jaguar is no exception, and sometimes it feeds on dogs and domestic cattle. This change in the jaguar´s habit can lead to an extreme dependency. The jaguar will get used to coming near houses without concerning the presence of humans. This phenomenon has already occurred in history and in these places the jaguar now has been extinguished. This behaviour is attributed to the absence or decrease of its natural prey in the forest (by poaching or by the transmission of domestic animal diseases). In some cases it is the result of old or wounded felines that see an easy prey in domestic animals, given their meekness, accessibility and agglomeration. The conflict tends to be more frequent at the borders of protected areas (public or private parks and reserves). In all the cases this leads to persecution of the “anomalous” animal by the cattle owners and farmers.

Unfortunately, the conflict is almost always solved with the death of the jaguar. At the moment, the three institutions are working in Misiones to inform about and extend the application of a series of measures of cattle management that help to avoid attacks by felines. These measures include recommendations about where to install the pastures, the importance of having safely enclosed farmyards, the results of experiences with electric fences and the necessity to protect the wildlife; all suggestions that benefit the farmers as well as the nature that surrounds them.

Why take care of the jaguar?

1) Its tracks: signs of the environmental health

Currently, various efforts are trying to reverse the situation that faces the species. Several public institutions and non-governmental organizations are trying to save the jaguar from extinction.

Many may wonder why to protect animals that cause problems and present a potential danger for the human life. Although not all the answers to these questions are yet available, it must be clear that the jaguar regulates the populations of all the species that form their prey base, preventing their populations to overgrow and maintaining their vigour by eliminating old and sick animals, even enabling them to hinder the spreading of diseases that affect these species, cattle and people. Likewise, the carnivorous predators are linked to the control of herbivore mammals that at their turn are predators of vegetal species. Vegetation determines the distribution of pollinators, birds and insects. Therefore, when the population of predators is affected, the whole ecosystem is disturbed and the carnivores are left more vulnerable than anything else.

What are we doing?

Taking care of a species like the jaguar and, essentially, to maintain a healthy environment that gives shelter to all of us, implies to approach several and different types of work: scientific research, creation and management of protected areas, law enforcement and patrols, establishment of new legislation and relevant public policies, development of education programs and spreading information to many social interest groups, development of participative projects to set alternatives that combine production and sustainable use of natural resources, among other activities.

Facing this diversity of issues and activities, the Administration of National Parks, the Ministry of Ecology of Misiones and Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina work along with other institutions concerned with the conservation and the proper use of the Atlantic Forest.

Through the projects and the work that each of these institutions performs, we are determined:

to conserve continuous areas of forest to protect species that, like the jaguar, need great expanses of forest to survive;
to recover the forest in some areas where it has already disappeared (with the purpose to maintain the quality of the water, of the air, the structure of soils and to avoid aggressive climatic changes)
to work together with the communities to identify and save traditional ways of using native plants and animals, as well as to develop alternative production systems, like organic under-shade production, agro-forestry systems, sustainable use of native timber and non- timber products, and so on.

Plan to protect the King of the Argentine Jungles...