Borderland Jaguars are an Antidote
December 11, 2020
All of us are connected by our common interest in the jaguar.
We are deeply grateful for the Northern Jaguar Project’s ever-widening circle of supporters and your contributions to protect these cats.
Over the last year, we have recorded 11 jaguars in 150 photos on the 270 square miles of uninterrupted habitat under our care on the Northern Jaguar Reserve and Viviendo con Felinos ranches.
This includes new jaguars, old friends, a mating pair, and a mother with her cub. They have provided a much-needed antidote to the events of this year.
ON THE RESERVE: For our field team, the remote, rugged nature of the reserve makes it easy to social distance. They spend each day in a place that is as full of life as ever – evidenced by the vibrant plant communities, animal encounters, and the images retrieved from motion-triggered cameras.
We explored and relocated cameras to some hard-to-reach areas this year. Our most important results extend to the smaller cats. An ocelot we first saw a decade ago continues to roam these lands. Photos of three other ocelots date back nearly as long.
ON THE RANCHES: The cats and reach of Viviendo con Felinos have grown in tandem with one another. We enrolled a new ranch this year and have plans to incorporate a ranch that had a depredation, thereby reducing tensions toward jaguars.
We have provided economic incentives for more than 1,100 feline photos, making this the highest single-year result for Viviendo con Felinos – with jaguars on 10 ranches. One ranch, after a handful of years with no jaguar sightings, had photos of three individuals in three months.
IN TOWN: We engage youth to foster an appreciation for living wildlife. We adjusted this year to create at-home activities for those Eco-Guardians with internet access. We distributed free activity books via a local grocery store to connect kids with the outdoors. And we painted jaguar-themed murals in four Sonoran towns to increase visibility among a wider audience. One of these is on a cattlegrowers association building, a visual metaphor for coexistence.
We want to thank you for making our work possible. We are primarily funded by individual donations, and your contributions are essential to protect jaguars and this dazzling habitat.
Important ways we will use your donations:
- We cannot go another year without replacing two worn-out trucks.
- Our new, short-term photo database technician has been so helpful that his position needs to be permanent – along with hiring another vaquero.
- The feline photo awards help the Viviendo con Felinos ranchers maintain their livelihoods in times of drought.
- We found the perfect property to establish a permanent headquarters in Sahuaripa, our home base. We finalized purchase negotiations but still need to raise $20,000 to make this lasting investment happen.
Please consider a year-end donation today and help create a resilient future for these endangered cats. We are inspired by and grateful for each and every one of you.
