AKA why we love the Guardian's GrrlScientist: “Big cat” is not a precise biological term, it is just a verbal shorthand for distinguishing the larger members of the taxonomic family Felidae from smaller ones. Some people formally define “big cats” as the four Panthera species: the tiger, lion, jaguar, and leopard. But other people also include cheetahs, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and cougars under the “big cat” umbrella. Big cat...
Conservation in ACTION We have recently completed the first stage of our Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Initiative, which integrates habitat mapping, native tree reforestation, and youth education. This high-impact project is made possible by those of you in the US, and the critically important US Neotropical Migratory Bird Act. We place an emphasis on the very birds which travel from your backyard in North America to the Central American Isthmus.......
Conservation in ACTION Globally important sea turtle arribada beaches like La Flor Wildlife Refuge (pictured above) receive tens of thousands of sea turtles each year. The greatest threat to successful nesting is high mortality among adults caught in fishing gear as turtles gather to mate.... Paso Pacífico in the News At the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting last month, Paso Pacifico Executive Director Dr. Sarah Otterstrom addressed government officials, business...
In Bolivia's Madidi National Park:Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) set up the camera traps to try and identify jaguars based on the unique patterns of their spots. Once the images were collected, the team ran them through software originally designed to recognize tigers by their stripes.The 19 jaguars found by the project represent a record number for a single camera-trap survey in the country.Read more about it at...
Smithsonian.com's Science & Nature, reports on "a bold plan for wildlife corridors that connect populations from Mexico to Argentina could mean the big cat's salvation."In antiquity, killing a jaguar was often part of a religious ceremony or a mark of status. But as ranches and settlements sprang up across Latin America, jaguars lost their religious significance. Demonized as dangerous predators, they were routinely shot. The fashion craze for fur after World...
Our friends at the Wildlife Conservation Society have had a great deal of success identifying individual jaguars with camera traps in Bolivia's Madidi National Park: A record number of jaguars have been identified in one of the world's most biologically diverse landscapes. Using technology first adapted to identify tigers by stripe patterns, researchers for the Wildlife Conservation Society have identified 19 individual jaguars by spot patterns in the rainforests of...
We're pleased to partner with the Ocean Recovery Alliance and other organizations to empower citizen scientists to alert the world to hotspots of floating trash. The hope is that tracking and mapping floating debris, will help drive cleanup efforts, including the potentially profitable harvest of floating plastics for reuse. Global Alert - Floating Trash from Ocean Recovery Alliance on Vimeo. Global Alert - Floating Trash is a global project operated...
Schoolchildren from Ostional, Nicaragua named this Hawksbill Brasilia Thought to be locally extinct as recently as 2007, the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill has been the subject of recent study using satellite telemetry. Our friends at ICAPO (the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative), working with other organizations, have just published their findings in the scientific journal Biology Letters. After two years of turtle tracking, this team of turtle biologists has observed that, unlike what...
Conservation in ACTION Javier, a student from the fishing villiage of Ostional, shows us a big smile as the Nicaraguan muralist Lezamón paints a stunning landscape on the wall of the local elementary school. The artwork depicts the distinctive forests, coastline and volcanoes of Nicaragua and includes wildlife unique to the Paso del Istmo, such as the yellow-naped parrot, the two-toed slot and various species of sea turtles.... Partnerships make...
Paso Pacifico's Executive Director Sarah Otterstrom and Communications Director Wendy Purnell just returned from SIMA's 22nd annual Waterman's Weekend, where Paso Pacifico was honored as one of their 20 beneficiaries! The turnout included more than 675 of the surf industry's most notable environmental stewards, and the event raised over $400,000 for non-profits like us that work to conserve ocean resources. Sarah Otterstrom, Paso Pacifico's Executive Director Photo: shop-eat-surf.com Jessie Creel...
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