Mention conservation in Brazil, and most people think of the Amazon and its rapidly diminishing rainforest. There is, however, another endangered ecosystem in Brazil that demands even more urgent attention. The Atlantic forest – Mata Atlântica – once covered 1.2 million Km², over 12 % of Brazil. Bordering the Atlantic coast it stretched up to 1.000 Km inland. Today, only about 80.000 Km² – around 7% of the original forest – remain. This project builds on existing study of the jaguar Panthera onca and ocelot Leopardus pardalis to improve conservation of the remaining Atlantic Forest at Upper Paraná Region and create a situation where local farmers, their livestock and wildcats can coexist. Jaguars are excellent indicator species; its role as a top predator and need for expansive areas of habitat with a good prey base, mean that its presence can be equated with conservation that is working. Ocelots increase the Landscape Detective Model by providing information on smallest forest fragments where jaguars are absent. By studying these species conservationists can learn how these cats use the landscape, where people and jaguars are likely to come into conflict and which areas should be prioritised for conservation. The main goal of this long-term project is to use jaguars and ocelots as landscape detectives to develop a network of wild core-reserves for the Upper Paraná Region in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The conservation model, once developed has the potential to be expanded throughout other areas of Brazil for effective forest conservation with maximum benefits for biodiversity.

Key Aims:

- Obtain further data on jaguar and ocelot density, home range, habitat selection, population genetics and demography in the upper parts of the Paraná River to fill the information void;

- Use data to map the most used dispersal routes and pathways in the Paraná Corridor network to identify priority areas for conservation;

- Engage stakeholders and involve them in conservation of wildlife and forest;

- Disseminate best practice for Wildcats Conservation throughout South America;

- Inform Brazil’s national conservation policy though institutions;

- Establish new reserves along the study area, involving private landowners next to existing protected areas as part of the government’s Private Natural Heritage Reserve network;

- Contribute to development of a tri-national corridor project between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay using the “Landscape Detectives” approach to secure a future for jaguars, ocelots and wildife.

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