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Understanding the Ranging Habits of Jaguars

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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 Bolivia, a record number for a single camera trap survey in the country.

“We’re excited about the prospect of using these images to find out more about this elusive cat and its ecological needs,” said WCS conservationist Robert Wallace. “The data gleaned from these images provide insights into the lives of individual jaguars and will help us generate a density estimate for the area.”

We’re so excited to follow in their footsteps with our own Jaguar Conservation Initiative.

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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 we know of their Carribbean and Indo-Pacific relatives, the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill population relies on mangrove estuaries for foraging habitat. Given that most Hawksbills have always been observed to inhabit coastal reefs, it’s possible that among the preliminary findings of this study is the potential that we’re watching an evolutionary adaptation indicating a different species emerging in the Eastern Pacific.

We’re proud to have contributed to these efforts to better understand the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtle, and we’re especially pleased to see this exciting research has garnered a good deal of press.

LA Times:
Endangered hawksbill turtles make a surprise appearance Scientists find a population of endangered hawksbill turtles unexpectedly making a go of it in mangrove estuaries.

BBC Latin America:
Cómo se resolvió el misterio de las tortugas Carey
(This is a great photo essay.)

Huff Post Green:
Hawksbill Sea Turtles Not Extinct In Eastern Pacific

Science News:
Hawksbill turtles in funny places

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On Wednesday April 13th, the California Academy of Sciences and Sea Turtle Restoration Project will host the first (hopefully not the last) Science of Advocacy Session at the International Sea Turtle Society annual meeting.

We look forward to hearing from these promising speakers:

  • Dr. Darren Schreiber (UC San Diego) will give us a primer on the intersection of neuroscience, public policy and behavior change.
  • Dr. Lekelia Jenkins (University of Washington) will discuss Sea turtles, Sentiment and Moral Imagination.
  • Conservation Photographer Neil Osborne will explore why (the right) picture (of a sea turtle) is worth a thousand words.

Much of the discussion will draw on the findings of this paper:

Biology, Politics, and the Emerging Science of Human Nature
James H. Fowler* and Darren Schreiber
In the past 50 years, biologists have learned a tremendous amount about human brain function and its genetic basis. At the same time, political scientists have been intensively studying the effect of the social and institutional environment on mass political attitudes and behaviors. However, these separate fields of inquiry are subject to inherent limitations that may only be resolved through collaboration across disciplines. We describe recent advances and argue that biologists and political scientists must work together to advance a new science of human nature.

PDF: http://dmschreiber.ucsd.edu/Publications/FowlerSchreiberScience2008.pdf

We look forward to learning more at this event next week!

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Kim Williams-Guillen, our director of conservation science, has been studying fragmented wildlife habitat and conservation corridors in the coffee-growing regions of Chiapas, Mexico. Like many others, she’s been testing the theory that shade-grown coffee plantations help ensure greater biodiversity in neighboring forests than do traditional cultivation methods, where coffee is grown more intensively in deforested areas (they do). Unlike scientists who’ve measured biodiversity before her, Kim’s focus has been on aerial insectivorous bats.

Using acoustic monitoring and live captures, Kim and co-author Ivette Perfecto have been measuring the feeding activity and biodiversity of bat populations in open and forested areas. Their findings suggest that shaded coffee plantations provide more valuable foraging habitat and that several species of bats commute through low-shade coffee monocultures. Providing valuable ecosystems services (as pollinators and pest controllers), bats are as important to managed habitats as managed habitats are to bats. Kim and her co-author conclude with a reminder that “multiple social, political, and ecological considerations influence which model best suits a region when planning the integration of agricultural areas into landscape-scale conservation plans.”

You can read the paper she’s just published here.

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Threatened throughout its range and long considered locally extinct across wide areas of the western slope of northern Central America, the jaguar (Panthera onca) is a top priority for our habitat restoration and wildlife corridor efforts. Teaming up with wildlife biologist, Miguel Ordeñana, Paso Pacifico is working to mitigate the loss of jaguars resulting from hunting and human-wildlife conflict in the Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor in the Rivas province of Nicaragua.

Over the past six months, Paso Pacífico has documented the presence of multiple jaguars in the Rivas province through camera traps and track surveys. We have captured photos of a male individual and documented tracks of a female with four cubs. We have also conducted over fifty interviews with local people across Rivas, receiving multiple reports of a melanistic jaguar (also known as a black panther) in the area, with the most recent sighting in June 2010. Ocelots, Jaguarundi, and Puma have also been documented through tracks, interviews, and photos across the isthmus.

Ranching is one of the primary agricultural activities in the area where we work, and cattle deaths attributed to jaguars have led to ranchers killing jaguars. Hunting pressure on big cats is increased by the trade in pelts. While the wildlife trade and the hunting of endangered cats are illegal, Nicaraguan law enforcement does not have the resources to respond to threats to wildlife. To protect jaguars, it is necessary to develop direct relationships and with local people and locally-based hunters.

East of Paso del Istmo lies another corridor of concern, connecting to the Jaguar Conservation Unit of Nicaragua’s Indio Maiz Biological Reserve. South of the Paso del Istmo corridor is the Jaguar Conservation Unit of the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica. We hope to strengthen big cat populations by creating a buffer through the expansion of conservation efforts across the international border.

You can help us increase protection and improve connectivity for jaguar populations (Panthera onca) in southwestern Nicaragua and the Jaguar Conservation Unit of northern Costa Rica, by donating to our jaguar conservation efforts.

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We’re pleased to partner with SEEtheWILD, a new organization launched to make conservation the next trend in travel. SEEtheWILD is helping travelers become conservation activists by helping them select eco-tourism destinations which are home to the animals they would like to save.

SEEtheWILD was born from the successful initiative SEE Turtles, which links environmentally conscious travelers and volunteers with community-based sea turtle conservation projects. SEEtheWILD expands this model of sustainable tourism to many new species of wildlife including bears, whales, and jaguars.

SEEtheWILD, in partnership with Reefs to Rockies, is now offering a trip to Nicaragua! During this ten-day adventure, travelers will experience this culturally and geographically rich country up close. Their experience will directly benefit Paso Pacifico’s field-based conservation programs. Reefs to Rockies and SEEtheWILD have committed to making a direct contribution to our programs on behalf of every traveler. We are grateful for this support and we encourage you to consider booking a trip with them soon.

SEEtheWILD’s innovative travel offerings will strengthen conservation efforts around the globe.

Congratulations to their team!

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Saturday night Paso Pacífico staff and visiting scientists were rewarded for their good deeds by Mother Nature. They watched the emergence of baby endangered green sea turtles and olive ridley turtles from the sands of Brasilon beach, north of Ostional.

Our dedicated rangers rescued one of the newly hatched green turtles from the claws of a hungry crab with some furious digging into the sand. They spent the evening documenting the numbers of hatchlings from various nests and patrolling neighboring beaches to protect turtles and eggs.

We are pleased with the work of our rangers, and deeply appreciative of everyone who has supported us in our sea turtle conservation efforts.

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