Jaguar conservation gets a boost in North and Central America. First camera trap photo of a jaguar taken by Panthera in a deforested area of Costa Rica’s Barbilla-Destierro SubCorridor.
Photo by: Panthera. Jaguar conservation has received a huge boost in the past few months both in Latin America and in the U.S. An historic agreement singed between the world's leading wild cat conservation organization Panthera and the government of Costa Rica in addition to a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposal bring renewed hope to the efforts to revive the iconic jaguar in its current habitat and return the cats to the American Southwest. On July 5th, Costa Rica’s Minister of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET), Dr. The MOU establishes an official jaguar conservation strategy in Costa Rica and recognizes a jaguar wildlife corridor as a conservation priority.
Latin America is not the only site for conservation victories. There has been some controversy over protecting a habitat that has seen so few jaguars in recent times. In the News: Cougars making a comeback in the US. After a century of decline, the cougar, also known as the puma or the American mountain lion, is now rebounding in parts of the United States.
Cougar (Florida panther) lying on log Making a comeback Despite having the greatest natural distribution of any terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, cougar populations in the US have drastically declined over the last 100 years, largely due to hunting and reduced prey availability. Cougar populations in some parts of the United States plummeted to such an extent that in 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the eastern cougar, considered by some scientists as a subspecies of cougar, extinct. However, according to researchers, the cougar’s population is now rebounding, and the range of this large and versatile predator is now extending outside of its traditional western habitats. Florida panther scratching at tree trunk Range expansion Florida panther warning sign for motorists Find out more about the cougar on ARKive. Lion attack on tent camper is unprecedented.
The mountain lion attack on a man in a sleeping bag is a shocking anomaly that made wildlife history.
You probably have never heard a story like it. That is because it's never happened before in California. Last Sunday night, a vacationer from Marin, heading to the Sierra for a hiking trip, stopped outside Grass Valley along a creek that feeds into the Yuba River to catch a little shut-eye. About 1 a.m., the camper awoke to a mountain lion that bit him in the head and clawed him through the sleeping bag for about two minutes, according to the Department of Fish and Game. Then the lion backed off, looked at him in the moonlight for a half minute and ran off.
Game wardens and the DFG's forensic lab confirmed his wounds were from a mountain lion, and in the days that followed, professional trackers attempted to locate the lion. The timing's crazy, because I spent the preceding day exploring the Yuba River watershed, from Grass Valley up to Spaulding Lake. Also of note: Outdoors notes.
Indian state says it's OK now to kill tiger poachers on sight.