Friday 17 April 2009

Replanting the Rainforests: Jaguar

[If you want to contribute to the Replanting the Rainforests campaign, see this page]

Looking at my last post, I realised that my last post was somewhat cold. I couldn't understand why. You may also find this post very similar to the last one. But I guess this "coldness" is inevitable. I'm discussing the critical state of wildlife. I'm not discussing anything about how to save them. So I don't really have a scope to get creative now. I'll add my comments in future posts.

After Mono Titi or Squirrel Monkeys, we'll now talk about the jaguar. Jaguar conservation has become an important subject now. Here's a brief introduction (from Wikipedia):

The jaguar, Panthera onca, is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus. It is the only Panthera found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona (southwest of Tucson), the cat has largely been extirpated from the United States since the early 1900s. There is, however, a high probability that (given the surveyed population in southwestern Arizona) populations of Jaguar exist in other unsurveyed regions within southern Arizona, New Mexico and possibly even Texas.


The jaguar is known as "a largely solitary, stalk-and-ambush predator," but it has never been known as a man-eater. It is located at the end of food-chain or at the apex of ecological pyramid. Therefore, it plays a crucial role in maintaining the stability of an ecosystem. But ...

Inconsiderate deforestation has imperiled this species. The IUCN has declared this species as "Near Threatened," which means "it may be threatened with extinction in the near future." Along with deforestation, poaching and hurricane (which is a result of the change of the climate pattern – another effect of deforestation) are also to blame for this. The "increasing competition for food with human beings" is also a risk factor for the jaguar.

Have a look at this to know better about the present condition of the jaguar.

[Is this post very cold as well? I think so. I am looking forward to the upcoming posts where I want to write in a more creative way.]

No comments: