Jaguar Monitoring Collaboration with Panthera

The work GVI has accomplished studying jaguars in Tortuguero National Park has started to catch the attention of feline biologists and conservation organizations. Since moving to the Jalova field station in 2010 the frequency of jaguar captures on camera has steadily increased. Jaguars can be recognized and told apart by their unique rosette patterns on their fur, and to date GVI has identified 10 different individuals active in the 3 mile survey area. They have achieved this with over 500 nights of camera trapping and more than 1000 jaguar pictures collected and identified in their database. A scientific paper written by Diogo Verissimo, a previous GVI staff member, brought to the attention of the media and the scientific world the incredible and unique interactions between Jaguars and Marine Turtles on the Tortuguero beach. We believe this relationship is what is principally supporting the coexistence of such a large jaguar population in such a small area.

Jag Molly captured on camera

“Panthera was founded in 2006 with the singular mission of conserving the world’s 36 species of wild cats, it currently focuses its range-wide conservation strategies on the world’s largest, most imperilled cats, one of these being the jaguar, the largest cat in the Western Hemisphere”. The hard work of the GVI Costa Rica Expedition team has been repaid with the possibility of working alongside this leading organization. Roberto Salom-Perez, manager of Panthera’s Costa Rica jaguar projects, visited our Jalova base whilst working here with the BBC wildlife team back in September 2011. Nearly 8 months later, after a lot of paperwork and meetings the first signatures were laid on what will be a 3 year collaboration between Panthera and GVI.

Molly together with male jag Alex

Expectations are high on both sides. The GVI team will be helping Panthera field scientists as they try and explore the extent and distribution of the jaguar population in the whole of Tortuguero National Park. The small piece of the puzzle that we have been working on for the past two years may now fit into a larger framework that will help with the management and conservation of jaguars in Costa Rica. Expertise from the Panthera staff will help the GVI team come up with new methodologies and extend the GVI camera trapping project to cover a larger survey area. They will also provide the means to allow us to expand our study techniques to include scat collection and analysis, a development that could greatly aid our understanding of the local jaguar population.

Jaguar Monitoring Collaboration with Panthera