A never-before-photographed black jaguar, recently documented in the jungle of
western Belize.
Principal Threats
Deforestation rates are highest in Latin America (FAO 1993), and fragmentation of
forest habitat isolates jaguar populations so that they are more vulnerable to the predations
of man. People compete with jaguars for prey (Jorgenson and Redford 1993), and
jaguars are frequently shot on sight, despite protective legislation. The most urgent conservation
issue is the current intolerance of ranchers for jaguars (see Part II Chapter 2 for more discussion
of this issue). In many cattle-ranching operations in the region, livestock roam widely and
become essentially feral (Schaller 1983, Quigley and Crawshaw 1992). Cattle have
been shown to constitute a major portion of jaguar diet in studies carried out on ranches in
seasonally flooded savanna woodland (Hoogesteijn et al. 1993, Crawshaw and Quigley in
prep.). The vulnerability of the jaguar to persecution is demonstrated by its disappearance
by the mid-1900s from the south-western US and northern Mexico, areas which are today home
to important puma populations (Brown 1991). A conservation plan has been developed
for jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal (Quigley and Crawshaw 1992), and the Brazilian
government is planning to establish a National Center for Research, Management and Conservation
of Predators in Brazil to address livestock-predator problems (P. Crawshaw pers. comm.).
Swank and Teer (1988) emphasize the potential benefits of controlled sport hunting as an
element of national jaguar conservation strategies, arguing that trophy fees would be an incentive
for some ranchers to maintain jaguars on their land. Translocation of problem jaguars has also been
recommended (Anon. 1992c, 1993c). Preliminary results from one such attempt in Brazil
have been good (P. Crawshaw in litt. 1993), but Rabinowitz (1986) found that
translocated jaguars in Belize often returned to stock killing.
Commercial hunting and trapping of jaguars for their pelts has declined drastically since the
mid-1970s, when anti-fur campaigns gathered steam and CITES controls progressively shut down
international markets (see Part II Chapter 4). Organized poaching rings, in which fur buyers travelled
through the country supplying traps and buying pelts from local people, are a thing of the past
(Swank and Teer 1987)
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