Mission to save jaguar exposes big cats’ plight in Brazil

AFP/Brasilia

It was late at night at the Preto Velho ranch when the unsuspecting jaguar approached the trap, took the bait — and was downed by a tranquiliser dart.

This was no common hunting scene, but an experiment aimed at saving the Americas’ biggest cat, whose numbers are threatened in Brazil due to soybean crops and livestock encroaching on their natural habitat, especially in the savannah that covers much of central Brazil.

The South American powerhouse, home to around half of all American jaguars, is also home to some who practise the old profession of “oncero”, hunter of the “onca pintada,” as these animals are called locally.

Preto Velho, 80kms from Brazil’s capital, is owned by Cristina Gianni, founder of the Nex (for “No Extinction”) conservation group.

For the past 12 years, her land has acted as a sanctuary for the king of the South American jungle — these solitary, nocturnal creatures who can speed across land and water, travelling up to 50kms in a day.

Within hours of being hit with the tranquiliser, and after being fitted with a GPS collar, the 95kg (210-pound) black cat, named Xango, was back with a roar that set the ground rumbling, and sent back to his natural habitat.

“Monitoring this animal can be very important to the ecology of the species, since it is becoming extremely scarce in our savannah,” said Luiz Alfredo Lopez, environmental analyst for the government’s Institute of the Environment (IBAMA), which helped oversee the operation.

The Nex conservation group said Xango’s appearance in the savannah near the capital, which has become increasingly urbanised and where few jaguars roam, was unexpected.

“Finding this wild jaguar in an excellent state of health, just 80kms from Brasilia, has been a great surprise,” said Leandro Silveira, president of the Jaguar Conservation Fund, located some 800kms from the Preto Velho ranch, and which provided the GPS collar.

Gianni and her group hope, by tracking Xango closely, it will be able to keep him safe while at the same time allowing him to roam freely — a modified version of what the sanctuary aims to do regularly.

The group’s reserve is home to more than 20 cats, including 13 jaguars, a number of whom could not survive in the wild.