Jaguar Detectives

Category: Day by day | Date: May 21 2008 | By: jaguardetectives

Seis R concluded, time to prepare the stuff to a new sample: Ponte Branca! One of the largest fragments of our study in Pontal with almost 2.000 ha (a hundred hectares are equivalent to one square Kilometer). Finally our license was approved after a lot of burocracy! Since I had decided to decrease the distance between the cameras trying to raise information on margays (Leopardus wiedii) the number of cameras necessary on each surveys increase and we spend the afternoon preparing 25 cameras to fix in this fragment.

Marina, Fernanda and I preparing cameras.
It means:

- 75 batteries C;

- 50 batteries AA;

- 1 Kilogram of Silica;

- 25 Film Rolls ASA400;

- 25 mothballs;

Hum, it is becoming more expensive each day… Yeah, but as they say: The show must go on!

Early on Sunday Cicinho, Wilson, Marina and I leave Teodoro Sampaio to a new hard work day. One more time we just arrive at the forest edge and found puma tracks. The only difference is that one’s was fresh, really fresh! The puma was in the old cattle trail on the edge of the fragment just a few moments before we reach there! The recent tracks, a scratch and strong “cat” urine smell suggests that it leaves the trail because of the car, ops, Little Miss Sunshine noise. Good signal!

Preparing stuff to a long work day.

We start to walk inside the forest following an old trail to start our work and our friend was warning us that we were invading someone’s home. That forest had an owner and the fresh scratches on the ground all along the trail were it way to say that.

Silent warnings: puma scratches.

We walked all day long looking for good places. Unfortunately it is not enough, as we have a design to follow to collect good data we need to establish very well the distance between the cameras and a good place need to attend these two assumptions: to had evidences that animal use the area and be at the correct distance of others cameras. And…it is really hard to achieve. By luck, my faithful GPS and Cicinho knowledge on the forest facilitate the process.

Cicinho wondering the best places to fix the cameras.

One entire day and we fixed seven cameras in optimal places! We take around two and a half hours to choose a place and fifteen minutes to fix it… takes time to do a good work!

Testing cameras.

Last moments on moonrise.

The farewell sandwich and back home get a little rest to the next day.

See you on Friday with more of our adventures.

“We are participating in WildlifeDirect’s business strategy. Please help us by taking this user survey, thank you”