r/Jaguarland

Credits: dr.armanansarivet

With efforts made in places like Arizona, Colombia, Argentina, and of course the safe haven of Brazil, seems slowly but surely they are regaining a footing of their once vastly wider historic range. The Pantanal has been one of the biggest population success stories all the way to the Jaguars of the Atlantic Forest which have had corridors to traverse despite having around 85% of the population erased with present threats from Poaching and Decrease in prey.

You can bring it to the spectacular story with whats being done in the Ibreá wetlands and the specimens that have been released back into the wild of that part of Argentina after 70 or so years.

It’s not an easy task and there are a plethora of losses teams have taken when reintroducing these large felines back into historic territory, poaching and unlawful hunting, genetic diversity, prey numbers, disease and deforestation, all factors. Yet despite it all, there are many successful missions that have happened and with proper percussions battling the constant pressures and stabilized breeding populations along with good gene flow, they can bounce back.

That brings me to Uruguay, the country that Jaguars are functionally listed as extinct and being popularly known for seemingly wanting nothing to do with them, with the last one being reported in 1901. As of currently there are no known reintroductions going on with most organizations within the country facing hurdles when dealing with large apex predators.

Quote “Organizations focus on smaller native species, such as collared peccaries and crab-eating foxes, rather than large carnivores”

Well turns out unsurprisingly, in order to control these other medium sized predators and large sized herbivores, you need well, large predators and Jaguars along with Cougars, Caimans, Crocodiles, And Spectacled Bears, prey a key role in their environment being keystone predators in were they live. Jaguars would be a great answer to the game thats already present however prey numbers would be another issue as the amount of creatures that once used to live there have since seen a decrease which unfortunately is common. They once called this region home and its only right they make a return to land they claimed long before humans.

Could this be a thing anytime soon? The way Argentina and Arizona have seen to put some effort into preserving the species? Give your thoughts

Also a shout out to a frequent artist whose art I display Hodari with the amazing depiction of a Giant Jaguar hunting a Sea Lion. Interestingly enough this example choice actually was based off information I received from a user who was native to South America. Along with millions of Pampas Deer, Peccaries and Tapirs Jaguars in Uruguay were said based off of anatomical evidence to be really large, probably also because of the fact they had a large array of prey ungulates but also supposedly the largest “Sea Lion colony” in South America which may have even been preyed on by these Cats when their ranges overlapped.

Area: Paraguayan Aird Chaco

Credits: Rambert Esau

Area: Caiman Ecological Refuge, southern Pantanal

Credits: Sanctuario Onça Pintada

We've just learned from Planet Wild that Mimbí was quietly moved to El Impenetrable. She's the daughter of Karaí and Colí male, and half sister of Acaí who was Karaí's daughter from her previous litter. Unlike Acaí and Miní, Mimbí is not inbred and she carries great genetic diversity from parents with totally different ancestry (the other two were father-daugther offspring).

It has been over a year since Miní and over 10 months since Acaí were poached in El Impenetrable after being moved there from Iberá. So far, nobody has been taken into custody and the investigations surrounding their deaths have led nowhere. This prompts us to ask, how reasonable is it to move yet another young, perfectly healthy, genetically diverse female from a safe heaven population like Iberá to an area with heavy poaching were the scientists cannot guarantee her safety nor locate and punish poachers effectively? While the Impenetrable population needs more females to grow steadily, doing so without first removing or mitigating poaching threats makes me extremely uneasy.

Area: Talamanca Mountain Rage, Costa Rica

Credits: Hrzn Wild

Area: Porto Jofre, northern Pantanal

Credits: Mateus Rauber

Area: Porto Jofre, northern Pantanal

Credits: Patricia Scalea

Area: Petén, Guatemalan Mayan Forest

Credits: unlocknature.tours

Area: El Impenetrable National Park, Argentine Dry Chaco

Credits: Pablo Luna

A special sighting in Bolivia’s Jaguarland Reserve — a female jaguar walking through the reserve with her young cub.

Area: Fazenda San Francisco, southern Pantanal

Credits: Edir Alves