Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

Decreasing numbers of the Jaguar within the rainforests of South and Central America Problem: The decreasing numbers of jaguar population within Central and South America from human interference can result in the species extinction. From the 1960s to the 1970s the jaguar experienced a population decrease of 18000, as a result of poaching. Now their numbers continue to decline as a result of deforestation and the destruction of their habitat. As a result of the continuing decrease in numbers the jaguar is now listed as endangered.

The Jaguar The Jaguar or Panthera Onca is the largest and most powerful big cat in the western hemisphere. The distinguishing feature that attaches the jaguar to the panthera genus is the modified hyoid bone in its throat that allows it to roar (8). Because of its illusiveness and camouflage biologists have only been able to estimate figures about population size, however this has not stopped them monitoring and studying the jaguars specific behavioural patterns. The map (1) shows that the range of the panther used to extend the whole south America and up to third of the united states within its south states but now the largest known population of the jaguar exists within the amazon basin and a small part of the united states (current range shown as darker orange) in Mexico and central America the jaguars range is only a third of its original range (10), this is because the jaguar population experienced rapid decline from poaching and its habitat being destroyed which still occurs today, with its protection status at near threatened by the IUCN (7) and in the Endangered species act jaguars are listed as endangered.

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

Physical characteristics This picture shows the distinct head shape of the jaguar up close along with its distinct pattern. The overall body size and coloration of the cat often relates to its location - jaguars found in dense forested areas of the Amazon Basin are often only half the size of those found in more open terrain (3), their weight is around 100 kg and can grow up to 6ft in length (4), and within the amazon basin the Jaguar has a darker coloration to provide better camouflage within the dense vegetation and forest providing a greater chance of survival and success in hunting (3). Approximately 6% of the jaguar population consists of the black panther or melanistic jaguar which has a black coloration caused by a dominant melanistic allele, which is even harder to 41see in its habitat by prey (5). Unlike many big cats Jaguars are very suited to water, and are very good swimmers using this to their advantage by utilising their ability to hunt for prey from rivers providing prey in the form of turtles, caiman/alligators, and fish. This picture shows how suited to water the jaguar is. Jaguars also eat larger animals such as deer, peccaries, capybaras, and tapirs.

They sometimes climb trees to prepare an ambush, killing their prey with one powerful bite (2). This powerful bite is the Jaguars very specific method of killing which is very different to its big cat counterparts in a method experts describe as brain piercing where the jaguar bites straight into the top of its preys skull straight into its brain killing it instantly rather than biting its neck which suffocated it or severs the spinal cord, this method can result in the jaguar losing many of its teeth (4).

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

Despite its threatened situation in the amazon the little information available on jaguars is limited to a few scat analysis and conservation issues, such as environmental impacts upon the species (10). Human effects on the Jaguar population

Jaguars have no other natural enemies apart from humans, jaguars only conflict with their own species when fighting over mating rights or territory. Humans are the only enemy of the jaguar because they are destroying the Jaguars habitat, which in turn depletes many factors in the jaguars life needed for survival. The destruction of its Habitat has resulted in a loss of prey, territory, and corridors between other jaguar populations, connections are vital for the jaguars survival as it allows reproduction from a variety of jaguars. This decrease in corridors will decrease the amount of jaguars mating, which in turn will decrease the potential growth of the jaguar population. This picture shows a jaguar cub on the forest floor which appears to depleted of vegetation. Female jaguars can produce up to 5 offspring, however they will only raise 2 cubs, and these cubs are born blind and remain blind for the first two weeks of their life. They remain with their mother for two years until they are left to establish their territory for themselves, this territory can be from 25 to 150 square kilometres in size depending on rivals and the amount of suitable prey (4). The rate of deforestation in the amazon per year within the region of Brazil is 18,161 Km squared per year with most of it being for non-sustainable use, for example, agriculture and pastures (10). The jaguar experienced its most rapid decline in the 1960s and 1970s mainly from poaching, with around 18000 jaguars being killed leaving 15000 in the wild present (3), after extensive pressure from anti-fur fashion groups the jaguars pelt is no longer sought after to such an extent, however this does not eliminate the fact that the jaguar is still being hunted. The jaguar is considered an umbrella species and has a very important ecological role; an umbrella species is one that covers large areas in its daily movements, much like its relative the tiger. They serve as a mobile link at the landscape scale, this is from being a predator, seed dispersal and

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

pollination (4) protecting its habitat to ensure a large enough population of the jaguar will benefit many other species in the amazon basin. Being an apex predator the jaguar ensures that the number of its prey is kept under its control. Corridors being lost

This map (6) shows the corridors between jaguar populations and how many of them are under threat from the reduction of their habitat which can result in the isolation of jaguar populations and therefore result in the decline in jaguar numbers. As you can see the populations furthest north and furthest south are at the highest risk of becoming isolated as they are the most sparsely populated, and have the least amount of corridors available which means if one corridor is destroyed then so is its only corridor, which contrasts with the corridors in the amazon basin which have 3 or 4 between each jaguar population connecting to several other populations. This reduces the risk of isolation because if one corridor is destroyed some others still remain meaning that mating between populations can still take place. Throughout of the whole of the amazon area its eastern region is the most affected, with its high population, as well as a large timber industry it has associated industrys with mining, like iron ore and even gold, and in some instances (10).

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

Solutions to prevent the jaguars extinction 1. Legal protection The jaguar The amazon 2. Breeding in captivity 3. Nature reserves 4. Sustainable harvesting

Legal protection-the amazon There are many fronts we should protect the jaguar on; this is because it needs many different factors to survive on, not only can we protect it from hunting, but also we can use legal protection to ensure the jaguars habitat. Environmental, political/social, and economical issues supporting legal protection of the amazon

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

to be put in place We need to protect the jaguars habitat as this allows the jaguar to reproduce and hunt prey peacefully; presuming that poaching has decreased significantly from the legal protection. Even though gaining protection will be very problematic for the whole amazon as it is used for in many industries for its raw materials, however many other environmental, political, and social issues involve the amazons depletion as the root of a problem supporting the argument.

For example a very large environmental issue that can be helped with the protection of the amazon is global warming; the amazon has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the essential service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. It is estimated that more than 20 % of Earth's oxygen is produced in the rainforest (9), supporting the argument to save the amazon, and therefore save the jaguars habitat. A social issue which again supports the protection of the rainforest is that not only is the jaguars habitat being destroyed so is the same habitat of the indigenous people, In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them has gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest tribes and populations are also disappearing. This links to another economic reason to stop logging the amazon rainforest as it can provide up to 300 drugs that have been predicted to be discovered which in turn can benefit pharmaceutical companies who can gain $4 billion dollars and in turn benefit wider society with $147 billion dollars (9). If the rainforest continues to be depleted than these potential medicines can be lost. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plants, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists (9). This means that the preservation of the rainforest has not only huge financial benefits but also has massive biological potential and benefits which could be the key to curing many diseases like cancer, The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. 25% of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest (9). All of these issues and factors all support the argument to legally protect the amazon. The benefit of legally protecting the amazon rainforest is that it secures and ensures the amazon with it being the most reliable method of preserving the amazon, unlike sustainable harvesting, where some companies may just use the sustainability as a selling point for their product or to justify the companys presence in amazon. Legal protection-the jaguar Protection of the jaguar after it had undergone extreme hunting in the 1960s and 1970s has made it illegal to hunt the jaguar and sell its lustrous fur on the black market. The legal protection has deterred hunting and poaching not only from the actually illegality of it but from the harsh sentence it carries, going up to 6 years sentence in some countries. Despite having dwindling numbers the jaguar does not receive full protection in some territories within the Amazonian basin and elsewhere. Jaguars are fully protected by national legislation in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Paraguay, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela. Hunting of problem animals is legal in Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, and trophy hunting is permitted in Bolivia. There is no legal protection for jaguars in Ecuador or Guyana, which means some jaguar populations are susceptible to poaching within its own habitat. Breeding in captivity Breeding in captivity involves maintaining and slowly growing the jaguar population within a private enclosure or a public zoo. A huge positive to breeding jaguars in captivity is the complete safety the jaguars will have from poachers and also from the gradual depletion of its habitat, however with this breeding in captivity has many shortcomings, being ineffective on some fronts. Breeding in captivity is very expensive and requires special facilities, specially trained experts, and long periods of time which can result in only increasing the jaguar population by 2 around every 6 years. Another problem with breeding in captivity is the reintroduction to the wild the jaguars will need which can be very risky with the jaguar being incapable of adapting to the rainforest in time to survive. I feel that breeding captivity should be a solution as a last resort when jaguar numbers are so low that small numbers that can be gained from breeding in captivity make a significant impact, also

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

even if breeding in captivity does not make a significant impact it is certain that the jaguar will still survive.

Nature Reserves Nature reserves involve taking part of the jaguars natural environment and completely protecting it from dangers from logging and poaching, allowing the jaguar to hunt and mate without disturbance. Nature reserves can also reduce the effects of population isolation when corridors between jaguar populations are being lost from over logging, this can be done by making spaces between nature reserves protected by the two reserves, this will ensure that some links are not lost and will help sparsely populate the jaguar throughout the amazon basin. To gain permission and allowance of the nature reserve to use land that could potentially be used in logging, sustainable harvesting should be allowed so that companies can still make profit of the land without depleting its resources and allowing the jaguars, and many other endangered species habitat to remain. I would use the nature reserve as a solution if gaining legal protection for the jaguars habitat fails, as it gains the same as legal protection other than 2 factors. One of these is the size of the protection; legal protection will encompass the whole of the amazon whilst a nature reserve will only designate a significantly smaller area preservation to benefit the Amazonian wildlife. Also laws on hunting on nature reserves are not as strict as those areas that are legally protected A problem with nature reserves is that they require large expanses of land, which can be expensive to own in the name of the reserve, as many logging companies desire this land for its raw materials and can acquire it with their large income from the exploitation of the amazon. Sustainable harvesting

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

Sustainable harvesting will still involve using the amazon as a resource but in different ways instead of logging, for example the amazon has demonstrated that it can provide medical plants, fruits, nuts, and oils (9). In this aspect the rainforest can provide long term profits benefiting the companies that use the rainforest in the short term destroying the rain forest like logging, this in turn will preserve the jaguars habitat, and maybe even encourage its survival with its vital ecological role benefiting these specialist industries. In fact, the latest statistics show that sustainable harvesting can benefit the wildlife living in the rainforest and the companies that use its valuable resources for profit. Land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre (9). Overall I believe to give the jaguar species the best chance of avoiding extinction and growing its population is to use 2 of these solutions in moderation with each other, I would use Legal protection (of both the Amazon and the Jaguar species) and sustainable harvesting because Legal protection will give the jaguar a certainty to surviving as all we need to prevent the decrease in numbers is to stop poaching and to protect its habitat, however, Legal protection is a very unlikely outcome on its own as it requires all non-sustainable resourcing from the amazon to stop which will be a very severe blow to the large companies that use it for raw resources who carry more power than the organisations who are fighting for the preservation of the amazon, with the addition of sustainable harvesting companies can still use the Amazon to make large profits and use it in the long term rather than short term industries like logging, benefiting both the jaguar and the thousands of other unique plant and animal species there and the Large companies. Bibliography http://wanttoknowit.com/where-do-jaguars-live/ (1) http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/jaguar.htm (2) http://www.agarman.dial.pipex.com/jaguar.htm (3) http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/animals/mammals/jaguar.htm (4) http://www.planeta.com/planeta/08/0804jaguars.html (5) http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/jaguars/photo-map-interactive (6) http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/jaguar.php (7) http://replantingtherainforests.org/site/index.php/Wildlife/jaguars-caught-in-conservations-spotl ight/Jaguar-Conservation-in-the-Spotlight.html (8) http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm (9) Non internet source; Conservation assessment of jaguars panthera onca in eastern Amazonia and northeastern Brazil by Tadue G. de oliveira of the department of biology in maranhao state

Biology issue report By Sam Mansfield

university UEMA (10) Evaluation I believe that (9) was my most useful source as it provided me with significant figures which I could not have collated myself and data that was very relevant to my research, supporting my argument thoroughly and the points I was making about sustainable harvesting which was a key part to my main solution, without this source I would not have been able to understand what beneficial impact the amazon had on the earth and how significant these impacts were. Another positive from this source is that it is entirely designed to provide facts, no opinionated points, making the source much more reliable than some others like source (2) which had some obvious opinions around the jaguar meaning I had to be very careful about the information I had extracted from this website as it could have corrupted the validity of my research. Sources (1) (2) and (3) provided me with some very good background information about the jaguar and its current situation in the amazon and taught me about its population history and how that has changed over the years.