Martin Main, Ph.D., from the University of Florida, and Ph.D graduate student, Emiliano Ramalho, study jaguars in a flooded rainforest in central Brazil. Jaguars are nocturnal, elusive and solitary, and little is know about their population density. The Amazon basin is critical to jaguar conservation because it holds the greatest numbers of animals. The Amazon contains large stretches of intact habitat that communicates with other important ecosystems.Main's team captured the beautiful female jaguar pictured above on Halloween, 2008. Fittingly, she was named "Elvira," and fitted with a GPS collar that will record her location every two hours for a year. The data collected will establish her range and movement with the change in water levels that flood up to 36 feet every year. (The area is so inundated that Mr. Ramalho stays in a floating research camp.)
Typically, infrared "camera traps" are used to photograph and identify individual free-ranging wild animals. Scat (feces) is also collected to study prey species eaten. The jaguar is a top predator that also takes domestic stock, and is killed by ranchers and villagers. Mitigating jaguar/human conflict will become a primary concern of conservationists, as the human population is ever increasing in central Brazil.
Dr. Main is also looking at other, complimentary techniques to camera trapping and radio collaring. Another student has done trials at the The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens with non-invasive collection of hairs, which will provide DNA material that will provide information on parentage and familial relationships.
For further information:
http://international.ifas.ufl.edu/focus_newsletters/2009/February2009/Jaguar.shtml
Photo by M. Main
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