Jaguars of Brazil - Dynamics,Lifestyle,Datas,Studies,Reports

[Dark Jaguar]

In this thread I am going to share only accounts regarding the study,dynamics, lifestyle, cases of the least studied of the big cats and Animal Symbol of Brazil's Biodiversity with translations direct from the portuguese including rewild as well. I will post all Brazilian Jaguars populations Amazon, Cerrado, Pantanal, Caatinga and Atlantic Forest, unfortunately Pampa's jaguars population from the Pampa Biome in South Brazil are no longer among us.

And despite dynamics,lifestyle,behaviours included also any case, story, and even urban reports that occurs here in Brazil regarding jags I will be sharing here too and make sure to post it here as well in case you guys find any accounts in these regards.

So I will start off with Onçafari account, study and events of 2013, the Document is 100% in portuguese so I will translate them and put here and now that I already know how to download photos to post it'll be much easier.


onçafari


Biome: Pantanal ( Southern Section )
Year: 2013
Location: Caiman Ecologic Refuge ( Instituto Ecológico Caiman )


TERRITORIES AND STANDARDS OF MOVEMENT.

 In order to discover territorial information about jaguars, a very controversial subject among other projects, the Onçafari's team counted with essential tools: photographic trapping and information generated by the radio-collar. Through the photographic trap, it was possible to obtain generic but valuable information about the places that jaguars frequent or patrol. After screening the results and identifying the registered individuals, it is possible to get an idea of which sites are most frequented by such individuals. Another fundamental tool to find out a little more about territories and patterns of jaguar movements is the use of the radio-collar with GPS system, which provides in a clear and objective way the location of the equipped individual. In this way, it is possible to obtain illustrated data regarding their location, route, and even copulation, feeding and reproduction behaviors. The map below illustrates part of the jaguar's living area called "Esperança". There were suspicions that this female was pregnant. After the months of confirmed gestation, it was discovered through the GPS points emitted by her radio-collar that she had chosen a place to generate a litter of three healthy young. Also due to this information, the project was probably able to carry out the first registration of a cub shelter which was not a captivity situation.  

Approximately every month Esperança carried out small migrations of shelters. Theories based on studies with African leopards say that female cats act in this way to disperse the odors of cubs and avoid possible infanticles caused by adult males of the same species. It is believed that the same can occur with jaguars in Brazil. Esperança was last seen in November. She was not in the company of her 3 cubs but shared a carcass with her eldest daughter Natureza. We believe that this mother did not want to risk exposing her young to this situation because when she finished eating she soon left. About half an hour later in the same place a very big male ( Xavier ) met with Esperança and performed copulation behaviours. If Esperança was with her cubs, Xavier would probably be a great threat to their lives. 

Amazing sightings of the mighty Xavier male on a kill.

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Red Circles bellow are corresponding spots to shelters of Esperança's cubs.

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The map below illustrates the proximity of four jaguars monitored by radio-collar, and gives us a good understanding of their areas of occupation, as well as some interactions.      
When analyzing the male ( Brutus ) dots, one notices that his territory is much larger when compared to the females as well as his area of occupation on the farm is not so significant since he spends most of his time outside the premises of the Caiman Ecological Refuge visiting this region sporadically. It is also clear the relationship of tolerance that female jaguars ( Natureza and Troncha ) have between them. Although they have no apparent degree of kinship, overlapping points of them are not uncommon making us question old concepts about the intra-specific relations that occur in jaguars of free life. 

Here you can see Brutus male and the other 3 female's movements Natureza,Troncha,Teorema on the map.

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Highlighting the importance of the use of radio-collars it can be said that we understand more easily even behavioral issues concerning the copulation of jaguars. As can be seen in the map below overlapping dots of Brutus and Teorema female indicate copulation behaviors verified through the discovery of traces (footprints) left by them. It is known that, even taking care of a seven-month-old cub, Teorema copulates with Brutus with a certain frequency. It is not known for certain why this occurs. Some theories suggest that females with cubs "seduce" the males to make them believe that their offspring has the same genetic load as that male's, meaning that he is the father of the offspring. Others suggest that she diverts the male's route, walking with him in the opposite direction of what the litter is housed, so that he does not perceive the cub(s). Both ways would be resources to increase the survival of her offspring.  

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Movements patterns suggesting mating between Brutus male and Teorema female.

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Camera Traps

During the whole year of 2013, the Onçafari team was able to count on approximately 18 camera traps which were installed in trail points, shelters, carcasses and even trees frequented by jaguars. Between the months of January and December, 130 different points were explored by photographic trapping.  These points correspond to places where jaguars pass through trails and winters, and are also installed in front of carcasses. The results obtained with the use of this equipment ensure the identification of individuals, and provide subsidies for the team to form a better opinion about the places that these animals frequent most.  There were 102 carcasses monitored by photographic traps of which 125 jaguar records were obtained. The number of jags greater than the number of carcasses monitored is due to the fact that often more than one jag feeds on the same carcass, either together (at the same time) or separately (at different times).  

Register of Jaguars on Carcass.

Filhotes Esp. = Esperança's cubs

Não retornou = Didn't return

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*This image is copyright of its original author

 



We also obtained 80 records of jaguars walking on trails they normally use for their daily commute and patrols. Some jaguars appeared more frequently and others more sporadically.   

Individual Register of Jaguars on trails.

Não ID = No identified
Fêmea 06 = female 06

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*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Arboreal habits

Little is known on the general ecology of jaguars. Datas described in the wild are so scarce that even verbal information provided by hunters is taken into account. On the daily basis of field researchers the Onçafari Project has been discovering habits never so far described by scientists. 
 
An example of data rarely described has occurred with certain frequency in the REC: the habit of climbing certain trees and staying high for a certain period. It is not known for sure the reason for this behavior but it is believed that as time goes by and the number of records increases new theories will be created and disseminated.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Solitary habits  


 Although most scientific materials published by renowned authors and experts state that the jaguar is a feline of solitary habits, it has been found that there are exceptions. In February the project team recorded a completely unusual situation never published before: four jaguar individuals all females interacting with each other. This was a situation where there was a cattle carcass and it was believed that the cats disputed dominance at the time of feeding that is who had the right to feed themselves first. The jaguars involved were two mothers (Esperança and Chuva) and their respective daughters (Natureza and Garoa) who did not feel threatened by the presence of the vehicle looking very little at it. At the end of the sighting Esperança followed one direction and Chuva another. Their daughters went out walking together without their mothers presence which was not expected since their degree of kinship is unknown.   


Register of 4 jaguars sharing the same carcass.

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Degree of kinship and intra-specific relations

Through information generated during sightings, records recorded in photographic traps and data provided by the satellite, it could be concluded that although they are considered solitary animals they spend some time with other individuals of the same species. In ANEXO 2 the tolerance and/or relationship and kinship situations of some of the known jaguars of the Onçafari Project can be observed individually.  



Relationship with Pumas

Studies and published bibliographies expose the idea that jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) are natural enemies avoiding sharing the same space.  This year we had some sporadic events that prove that this degree of intolerance is not so intense.    In February, the team sighted a female puma and its young inside a winter only 1.2 km away from four female jaguars. In April a photo trap installed on the top of a tree (morcegueiro) also recorded a female puma and its young. Both appeared a few days after the same camera recorded the presence of two jaguars marking the tree with urine. In theory if the puma smelled the urine of a jaguar in one place it would avoid the same and would not run the risk of bringing its cub with it. In September during a sighting of the jaguar theorem feeding on a bovine carcass the presence of a puma in another carcass of the same species was noticed. Both were only 115 meters apart.  

Puma with carcass and in the Morcegueiro tree with cub.

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Jaguars Burrow

An unprecedented and until then never published fact was the discovery of the birthplace of 3 jaguar cubs. It was known that Esperança was pregnant and the birth of the cubs was already an expected fact but what we did not imagine was that in fact we would know the shelter of this new family, erroneously known as the burrow. It is an area that is difficult to access due to the high rate of caraguatá and some external roots of large trees provide shade and protect the still defenseless litter from possible attacks by predators. To make the new discovery the team was fragmented into two teams, one remaining with Esperança female while relaxing in an open area away from the cubs and the other visiting the burrow ensuring beautiful records as well as the installation of a photographic trap in order to record the behavior of mother and cubs.


Three jaguar cubs in the ''burrow''.

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Behavior

Little is known about the behavior of jaguars in the wild.  The most described behaviors were performed in captivity and they cannot be applied to free life since confined the animals sketch reactions and perform behaviors completely different from those they would perform in the wild.  Each sighting provides the team with the knowledge and compilation of a range of behaviors which are carefully recorded (taking care not to tend to anthropomorphism) which will later be transformed into behavioral spreadsheets and etograms, documents these unknown and never published in the scientific environment.   


Yvo male in one of his sightings

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Habituation

During the year some sighting rates grew while others remained very low.  The graph below shows the exact number that represents the number of times the jags listed were sighted.  It can be stated that the most sighted jags (Esperança, Natureza and Teorema) correspond to the jags with the highest degree of habituation.    
Numbers referring to the "cubs of Esperança" and "Nusa" will have a natural tendency to increase over time, a fact justified by being together with their mothers who accept the presence of the vehicle and team.  In this same year, there were great achievements regarding the habituation process since extremely shy and suspicious jags started to trust the vehicles and team of the project more, showing their puppies that this team does not represent any threat to their lives.  This fact occurred with Esperança and Natureza the latter being one of the most accustomed individuals of Caiman Ecological Refuge. It also occurred with Teorema she's an extremely reserved jag and initially with no area of life known by the researchers. Due to the placing of her necklace the team could know where she was and proceed with the slow work of habituation. Nowadays this female not only accepts the team very well allowing long sightings but also taught her seven-month-old daughter not to fear the vehicle. The habituation process is slow but extremely compensatory making us know the personality of each individual as well as the next generations.  

Yvo male in one of his sightings by Onçafari project.

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Monitoring the Cub's Growth

Accompaniment The Project performs a fundamental work to improve the habituation techniques and make the process a little easier to execute: the habituation of females accompanied by cubs. At the beginning of the year the team was able to follow the transition of the cubs' lives by following their mother's last steps, before the subadult life: Esperança (mother) and Natureza  (daughter); Chuva (mother) and Garoa (daughter); and Teorema (mother) and Pitágoras  (son). We obtained excellent results that only prove the theory that females pass the teachings to their cubs, and that if the mother trusts and allows the approach of the team executing the project, her cub will also do so. This fact occurred with the females Natureza and Garoa individuals who accepted well the habituation process when accompanied by their respective mothers, and who after the transition to the subadult life continued with the memory that the vehicle presents no threat to their lives. Different result occurred with Pitágoras who was not accustomed because of his male gender and the high probability of it leaving the farm when it reached maturity. In fact the expected occurred and since it became independent, was never seen by members of the Onçafari Project in the dependencies of Refúgio Ecológico Caiman. If the team would insistently get used to this male, when he left the REC, he would possibly show more tolerance to the vehicles from neighboring farms, which could take advantage of this situation in an unscrupulous and illegal way. In the months of April and May, two ounces monitored with radio collars had offspring:  Teorema had one cub and Esperança had three. The work of habituation remained constant, despite the difficulties faced in viewing females with newborn cubs, due to their hurried pace in returning to the shelter, as well as the slight mistrust, natural and expected behavior. The work with the cubs is intense and we have already harvested fruit with these younger cubs. In the month of December, the puppy of Teorema rested about two hours away from the vehicle, only 05 meters away, without appearing suspicious or insecure during the approach.    


Esperança's cubs breastfeeding in a sighting and feeding on carcass.

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Nusa the youngest daughter of Teorema female in a sighting.

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Predations

In 2013, the Onçafari Project also began to study some cattle predations by jaguars.    These predations identified certain ways of killing and even the pattern of intake of each prey by jaguars. When analyzing the movement pattern of these jaguars, it can be observed that the slaughter of cattle is not linked to management, i.e., the jaguars of Fazenda Caiman do not follow the cattle. They only slaughter and feed themselves when they are traversing their own territory.  When they slaughter, they return for several days, on average three days, even feeding on meat in the process of putrefaction. Another important point observed in 2013 is that jaguars tend to slaughter weak and sick animals.  Many of the records were of animals that were strayed from the herd by some problem, as well as limb injuries, verminose, malnutrition, adverse reactions to vaccines and even distension of the digestive tract.


calves affected by wounds and malnutrition

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The size of the cattle slaughtered by the jaguars was also an important consideration for the project team in 2013. The registered slaughter cattle weigh on average 140kg. jaguars rarely  slaughter animals over 300 kg and/or over 24 months old. In the months of April to December, 118 cattle deaths from jaguar attacks were recorded by the technical team of the Onçafari Project in the winters analyzed. It is worth noting that this number does not include the registration of opportunistic jaguars, that took advantage of calves already dead from disease and/or bleeding by cattlemen. 


Location of the carcass

The biologists of the project locate the carcasses using some resources, such as: observation of carrion birds like vulture and carcass; agglomeration of GPS points of the collars installed in the jaguars; vehicle rounds in the winters where there are cattle of the standard slaughter size of the jaguars; tracking through footprints and the communication of pedestrians with the technical team of the project.  


GPS points and black headed vultures indicating cattle slaughter.

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Slaughter analysis

The way the jaguar slaughtered the cattle is recorded and analyzed in detail so we can define the main forms of slaughter such as asphyxia, fracture at the base of the skull and neck twisting caused by the animal falling to the ground. Using careful analysis it is possible in certain cases even to define the individual who performed the slaughter. Certain cases are reported by the shape of the bite. Example: the absence of the upper left canine mark of the ounce of Esperança. 


Calf slaughtered with a bite to the base of skull and consumed part analysis.

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Camera trap

A photographic trap is installed next to the carcass that registers any animal that comes to feed on it. Often the jaguars are identified through this record and we can also elucidate the time of ingestion.


Camera trap installation on carcass.

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Thus, the project can define what time a jaguar usually feeds itself taking into account weather conditions and a certain time of the year.  


Yara female and Yvo male registered by camera traps on the carcass.

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