Jaguar Detectives

Category: Day by day | Date: Aug 05 2008 | By: jaguardetectives

Dear friends,

It has been difficulty to come last days. We are in intense field activities and promise to bring good news soon! Tomorrow I am living in an expedition to another jaguar study site in Mato-Grosso-do-Sul state. I will be without any kind of communication with the “external world”. Well… sometimes we can get cell phone signal on the top of the water reservoir. If it works I will try to connect. Wish luck to our team! Hope to bring good news and lots of adventures from the field soon!

Cheers,

Fernando

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Category: Day by day | Date: Aug 01 2008 | By: jaguardetectives

First of all, I would like to thanks to Wanda, Sheryl and Pirjo who did donate to our project and are helping to support our work.

Thank you a lot for your help!

We are in intense field activities, what is troubling us to post more frequently.

To work with endangered species conservation is a challenge per se, but sometimes we need to deal with some surprises - not the good kind of. Yesterday we was on the way to the forest fragment Tucano when we saw an animal killed by a car. An ocelot…

…when we saw an animal killed by a car. An ocelot…

Of course it is terrible to see any kind of animal killed by cars in roads, but this one was difficulty to deal. It takes one or two minutes for me to focus my mind and starts to “work properly”. After all we are humans and are definitely working on it because we love to do it, so I think we can request the right to get upset and sad in see an awesome wildcat, top predator, millions of years in evolution there just laying in a road as a vulture next meal.

It was an sub-adult male, probably dispersing trying to fix his own territory. We get some basic information and, after a double check on my license from the Environmental Government Agency allowing me to do it, we get the carcass to a biopsy and collection of biological samples.

…we get some basic information…

After all it will give us important information on health, genetics and diet from the specie on the region. Cássio Peterka, veterinarian, collect the samples, which will be sent to Universities and the bank of biological samples of CENAP/IBAMA - Research National Center for Natural Predators Conservation.

We have a lot of work to do if we still wanting these animals around for the next generations.

See you soon…

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