Royal Resorts, Amigos de Sian Ka’an & El Edén Reserve Join Forces to Protect the Jaguar

Royal Resorts recently teamed up with Amigos de Sian Ka’an and El Edén Reserve in a campaign to protect the jaguar and the Yucatán’s other four wild cats: the puma, ocelot, margay and jaguarundi. The goal is to raise money for the study of these beautiful creatures and for the conservation of their jungle habitat.

Royal Resorts guests can help by purchasing special Save the Yucatan’s Wild Cats bookmarks on sale at The Royal Market and La Paloma Gift Shop. All proceeds will go to this worthy cause.

Over the next few months we will be publishing posts on the Yucatan’s wild cats, this conservation campaign and updates from the field.

The Path of the Jaguar

A stealthy tread and a glimpse of dappled skin, the jaguar slips silently through the forest. Once widespread from Arizona to Patagonia and revered by the ancient Maya and Aztecs for its strength and courage, the largest wild cat in the Americas has one of its last strongholds in the jungles of the Yucatán.

An emblem species for Mexico and a symbol of the Maya World, the jaguar (Pantera onca, balam or chac mol in Maya) shares its jungle home with four other felines, the puma or cougar (Puma concolor, koh in Maya), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis or sak xikin in Maya), margay (Leopardus wiedii or chuliab in Maya) and the jaguarundi (Herpalurus yagaroundi, leoncillo or emuch in Maya). All are beautiful, elusive and sadly, threatened with extinction. They fall prey to poachers who hunt them for their pelts and teeth, farmers who claim they kill livestock, and forest fires, and are confined to an ever-shrinking habitat where trees are being cleared at an alarming rate to make way for development. In northern Quintana Roo, all five felines and the species that they hunt are especially vulnerable as urban sprawl and population growth take their toll on the forest.

As area ecosystems become more and more fragmented, wild cats are forced to roam over larger territories in search of food and this inevitably brings them into contact with man and domesticated animals. Inbreeding also becomes a problem as the number of animals of reproductive age in the region dwindles, and this has repercussions for the health of future generations of cubs.

Biologists estimate that there still may be as many as 300 jaguars in the northeastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, but that 500 adult jaguars are needed to sustain a viable population in the wider region. It is imperative for them to carry out surveys, calculate the numbers of males and breeding females, the extent of their range, the populations of prey species such as brocket deer, peccary, agouti, coatimundi and wild turkey, and the trails they follow through the forest. They also need to measure the impact that roads  –and planned highways– have on their movements.

Once biologists have discovered where jaguars and other cats are moving and why, they can identify corridors favored by different species, map priority areas and then take steps to preserve them. The ultimate goal is to create biological corridors connecting the reserves of Yum Balam, Rio Lagartos and El Edén in the north of the Peninsula with Sian Ka’an and Balam Ka’ax in central Quintana Roo and linking them to Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche and other protected areas in Guatemala, Belize and further south in Central America.

Often referred to as the Great Mayan Jungle or Gran Selva Maya, this region has one of the largest remaining expanses of tropical forest in the Americas. Apart from its immense biodiversity, it is also an important green lung for the planet, absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Finding Jaguars & Other Wildlife

Cancun-based NGO Amigos de Sian Ka’an has teamed up with well-known Mexican biologist and conservationist Marco Lazcano Barrero to study jaguars and other wild cats in Quintana Roo. Lazcano has spent years monitoring the jaguar in El Edén, a privately owned reserve in the north of the state between Leona Vicario and Yum Balam Biosphere Reserve, and is an expert on the species. In 2007, as part of his research in El Edén, he installed 60 motion-sensitive cameras in an 80-square kilometer area of jungle, savanna and wetlands to keep track of the local jaguar population.

The El Edén project formed part of a nationwide jaguar census organized by CONANP (National Commission for Protected Areas) and UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and yielded invaluable information about the movements of individual cats in the reserve and the surrounding district.

One of his surveys revealed a density ranging from seven to 11 jaguars per square kilometer in the reserve, a positive sign as it includes males and breeding females and also indicates that the populations of different prey species are abundant.

Now working in a wider study area, Lazcano is positioning cameras along jungle trails and at different points along the Cancun-Mérida toll road to monitor wildlife. He and fellow biologist Enrique Santoyo return regularly to check the cameras and see what creatures have been captured on film.

Research shows that wild animals will use manmade paths the forest, cross the 60-meter fringe of trees and undergrowth bordering roads and sometimes use underpasses built for cattle, Lazcano is hoping that he will be able to identify important “routes” used by animals and determine key areas and corridors for conservation. Such findings could also help in the selection of sites for underpasses along the new Playa del Carmen- Tintal highway currently under construction.

The study area encompasses a belt of jungle, savanna and marsh along a geological fault line called the Holbox Fracture that stretches from the Yum Balam Biosphere Reserve in the north to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. The area is dotted with cenotes and a labyrinth of underground rivers lies deep beneath the limestone, guaranteeing a year-round supply of water for wildlife and plenty of prey such as deer, birds, fish and turtles for predators.  A natural biological corridor used by a host of wild creatures from jaguars and deer to migratory birds, biologists and conservationists have identified it as a key area to protect.

Lazcano and Santoyo are working closely with rural communities in the area to get them to support the project and to protect areas known to be rich in wildlife as forest reserves. They explain the importance of jaguars and other felines, their role in the ecosystem and the need to conserve them. Ecotourism may be a possibility for many of these communities and the Mexican Forestry Commission (CONAFOR) and several other government agencies recently launched programs to preserve the jungle, assist with eco-projects and other sustainable development initiatives.

Installing the Cameras, Early Results

As the first stage of this project, 54 cameras are being installed at different points within the study area. Two kinds of cameras are employed, one with a flash and an infrared model without a flash; both are extremely fast, taking photos 0.25 or 0.30 of a second after a movement triggers the sensor.

Cameras must be set up over an area of ten kilometers with two to three kilometers between each one. Shady, hidden positions with a clear line of vision along the trail and light throughout the day are selected to ensure good photos and cameras are secured to tree trunks with cables to try and reduce theft or vandalism.  Once a camera is installed, the biologists return regularly to inspect it for damage, check the battery, adjust the height and location if necessary, and analyze the photographic record.

Naturally, the cameras take pictures of everything that passes, including people, vehicles, livestock, dogs and wildlife and the first photos from several cattle passes along the Cancún-Mérida highway documented lots of human activity and disappointingly almost no fauna. However, at one jungle location, the biologists were thrilled to discover the photo of a jaguar taken only 12 hours after the camera was installed and a few days later, separate sightings of male and female ocelots and a coatimundi.  The jaguar had very dark spots or rosettes and Lazcano speculates that these distinctive skin markings may point to the existence of a subpopulation and will be looking for additional evidence of this as research progresses.

The minimum time for a camera study is 30 days, but more time will be needed to map jaguar movements in the area. Male jaguars roam over territories often exceeding 100 square kilometers (females stay closer to home, within a territory of between nine and 15 square kilometers), meaning that individual cats may be sighted every four to five months in a specific location.

Lazcano and Amigos de Sian Ka’an are planning to carry out a second census in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve in 2011.

First installed by researchers in India to study tigers, motion-sensitive camera traps are now widely used to track the world’s spotted cats such as jaguars, ocelots and even snow leopards as they enable the identification of individual animals by their unique rosette markings.

Yet camera studies are only part of the research planned for northern Quintana Roo. At a later stage in the project, biologists hope to trap jaguars and fit telemetric collars so that they can follow their movements, and also use specially trained hounds to find jaguar scat. Analysis of the samples collected will yield invaluable information on jaguar diet and state of health, their sex and even their parentage through DNA studies.

Help Royal Resorts and Amigos de Sian Ka’an raise money for this research and for the campaign to protect the jaguar and the other wild cats of the Yucatán. Through its donations, the Royal Resorts Foundation is already supporting a number of conservation initiatives, including the purchase of land for this project.

Royal Resorts members and guests can join the cause during their vacation by purchasing the donation cards now available at all branches of The Royal Market and in La Paloma Gift Shop.

If you would like to make a donation you can also visit www.amigosdesiankaan.org for information on how to do so.

Stay posted for additional articles in our series Wild Cats of the Yucatán

Photos courtesy of Marco Lazcano Barrero and Amigos de Sian Ka’an (ocelot)