Protecting Jaguars and Biodiversity in the Amazon

Dear Supporter,

The canals that run within Tortuguero National Park are one of the main tourist attractions of this area. They not only offer a peaceful and tranquil method of transport around and through the park, but also provide some of the most impressive bird-spotting opportunities in the area.

Since 2011, GVI has been conducting surveys of the canals surrounding Jalova Base. Consistent monitoring occurring over a two year period has enabled us to get a good overall insight into the populations of important species that reside on the canals. Recent analysis has shown that both the density and diversity of the birds using the canals has increased over the last two years.  Importantly, we found that the canal with most boat traffic, Caño Negro, showed significantly less diversity than the other canals.

These results were presented to MINAE (Costa Rican Ministry for Environment) in an End of Year Report in July, which signalled the completion of the project as it stood. However, incidental monitoring of the canals has continued, with great success. In recent weeks we have had sightings of many species whose population trends are either unknown or decreasing according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It began on our closest and busiest canal, Caño Negro. At the beginning of the month, a Boat-billed Heron (population trend unknown) was spotted, which has not been recorded by GVI since March this year. Following that, an American Pygmy Kingfisher was sighted. This is the rarest kingfisher in the area and it population is currently listed as decreasing.

A trip to a more distant canal, Central, gave us the pleasure of finding both a Limpkin and a Least Bittern. Although listed as Least Concern with a stable population trend, both of these birds are rarely sighted around the Jalova area, these viewings being only the third and second this year, respectively. On our canal incidentals, however, we are not just searching for canal birds. We record all avifauna observed, including an impressive Black-collared Hawk that made an appearance on our survey of Central.

More recently, a group of volunteers were treated to an amazing sighting of Swallow-tailed Kites. Over forty of them had congregated for the long migration south from North America. Riding the thermals, gliding ever upwards, this was one of the most spectacular scenes witnessed by many of the group during their time here. To top of this incredible visage, on the return journey to base we saw many American Crocodiles, a few Spectacled Caiman and got our first sighting of Bottle-nosed Dolphins this year.

These recent experiences show that the canals of Tortuguero National Park provide an exciting and diverse environment, not only for monitoring avifauna, but also many other species. The canals are vitally important for maintaining the impressive diversity of this area, and continued monitoring should help us to further demonstrate this importance, and offer advice as to how this amazing habitat can be preserved.

Thank you for supporting and donating to our work. If you would like to volunteer with us on this project also, please do feel free to get in touch.

Many thanks

Sophie Birkett

Charitable Trust manager

Links:

• GVI Charitable Trust

The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas and the third largest cat in the world. They are classified by the IUCN as Near Threatened and in Costa Rica they are considered to be highly threatened. The main threats facing jaguars today are habitat loss and fragmentation, decreases in prey numbers and hunting of individuals that prey on livestock. In Tortuguero National Park there is a perceived conflict with the jaguar population predating marine turtles, and the population here has come under scrutiny because of this.

GVI have been running a camera trapping program in the Jalova region of TNP (Tortuguero National Park) since 2011, during which time 18 individual jaguars have been identified. The main aims of the project are to establish population estimates and to study the behaviour of the jaguars, particularly in relation to predation on marine turtles, in order to better understand this unusual situation and to analyse what, if any, management actions should be taken. Along with permanent stations along the forest trail adjacent to the beach, camera traps are often set on freshly predated turtle carcasses in order to capture jaguars when they return to feed. We have caught some extraordinary behaviour on film this year, from two adult males feeding together at a Leatherback carcass to a fight between an adult female and a young male at a green carcass.

The most recent success was possibly the most exciting footage so far. The cameras were set on the fresh carcass of a green turtle, just over two miles from Jalova base. The footage showed one of our female jaguars, Eliana, feeding with two small cubs. There are several minutes of footage of the cubs; not only feeding but also playing, calling and practicing their hunting skills on an unfortunate marine toad.

Whilst the footage of the cubs is adorable to watch, it is also very significant in terms of the studies being carried out here in Tortuguero. The more that can be learnt about the behaviour of the jaguars and their reliance on marine turtles as a food source the better it will be for taking any management decisions regarding the local jaguar population. There has been a slightly sensationalist attitude towards the perceived threat of the jaguars towards the marine turtle population, and to some, the news of more jaguars in the park may not be welcome, but the cubs represent a new generation of jaguars and, for a species classified as near threatened, any new additions to the population can only be a good thing.

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• GVI Charitable Trust
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