A wildlife monitoring network has recorded jaguars in Ecuadorian cities at altitudes of up to 2,600 meters, something never seen in the South American country. One study associates this unusual phenomenon with possible migratory pulses, the incidence of climate change, or human inference in lower areas.
Many of the pre-Hispanic cultures across the American continent considered the jaguar (Panthera onca) a deity, but his current reality has undergone a drastic change. Habitat loss, hunting and the introduction of diseases through domestic fauna have caused this feline to lose 55% of its historic territory from Argentina to the United States. It is considered practically extinct in the United States, Uruguay and El Salvador, while in Ecuador it is listed as an endangered species. The Amazon basin has become its great refuge, where 89% of its total population lives.
A study by researchers at the Universidad Técnica Privada de Loja (UTPL) in Ecuador, recorded locations of this animal above 2,000 meters above sea level. The authors of the article, published in the journal mammalsbelieve it could be part of a previously undetected migratory “pulse”, a man-made phenomenon at lower altitudes, or the incidence of climate change.
In 2017, the wildlife monitoring network was established in the Sangay-Podocarpus Connectivity Corridor. Daniel Griffith, researcher at the Laboratory of Tropical Ecology and Ecosystem Services at UTPL and co-author of the work, is part of the project to alleviate the lack of indicators in Ecuador. “it’s frustrating not having information to feed public policies”, he laments. The system is articulated with public institutions for effective monitoring with low investment within the framework of the creation process of the same Corridor. “The proposal was to do something in common with the technical and scientific capacity of the area“, Explain.
The first animal pictures
The first images that the network obtained were of tapir, peccary, deer and some small mammals. However, the system discovered two records of jaguars at 2,300 and 2,600 meters in the Tapichalaca reserve (Zamora-Chinchipe) and in the Río Negro-Sopladoram National Park, respectively. These are altitudes never seen in these cats. “The record of 2,600 meters is crazy, the place is surrounded by paramo and mountain forest”, says Rodrigo Cisneros, specialist in conservation biology, now at the Complutense University of Madrid and co-author of the article.
Griffith, comments that “It may be normal for the jaguar to disperse from one area to another from time to time. It could be that it’s moving from the Amazon to the coast… That would be very interesting, although we can’t confirm it so far. It could also be a phenomenon caused by the expansion of livestock, which is why it would be seeking refuge in the highlands. But beyond all these speculations, the records show the need for monitoring to reveal all these news.”.
In the populations that the Tapichalaca reserve aggregates, it has been more than 40 years since the neighbors last saw a jaguar, according to Cisneros. Landscapes and biodiversity have suffered a major impact due to “colonization and livestock expansion, between the seventies and eighties“, Add. In addition, although there are no records, the residents of these cities guarantee that a great slaughter of jaguars took place.
The jaguar conservation challenge
Now, the great challenge must be its conservation and for that it is fundamental”maintain viable populations connected through protected areas, recover population sizes where they have been wiped out, and reduce direct hunting pressure”, explains Cisneros. However, the researcher fears that these plans will remain on paper.
For his part, Griffith considers it essential to preserve the jaguar’s habitat and corridors, as its conservation also implies that of many other species with which it shares territory.
The situation is critical why “we are making decisions that affect the landscape without even knowing which vertebrates inhabit it, let alone fungi and insects. We demonstrate the importance of monitoring articulated with governments and local actors. We can, the point is to sustain it and that this information is considered by decision makers to ensure that we have this biodiversity and the benefits it brings to our children, grandchildren and future generations.”, he concludes.
Jaguar, America’s Biggest Cat
The researchers explain that the jaguar is the largest cat on the American continent and the third largest in the world. In addition, it is located at the top of the food chain and this gives it a prominent role in the ecosystem. According to Cisneros, this animal belongs to one of the main predatory species, so “controls the entire food web”, populations of herbivores such as white-lipped peccaries, tapirs and capybaras; to populations of intermediate predators such as ocelots, jaguarundis, alligators, among others. “He’s like a conductor, others follow his rhythm“, Add.
With a roar that evokes thunder, many pre-Hispanic cultures across the continent came to consider the jaguar as a deity, sometimes represented in human form. In your New World HistoryGirolamo Benzoni describes “a clay idol in the shape of a tiger”, in reference to this feline. To this day, some cultures like the Waorani still associate it with fertility, power, destruction and the night.
Reference
Griffith, D. et al., “New altitudinal records of panthera onca (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Andean region of Ecuador”. mammals