The jaguar (Panthera Onca) is the world's 3rd largest feline and it requires a large home range in order to survive. It is a perfect example of an umbrella species, meaning that it's conservation ensures the protection of a large number of other species in the same ecosystem. It is also a keystone species that plays a fundamental role in controlling the populations of many other animals that are included in its diet.
CURRENT STATUS
The jaguar is present in 18 inter-connected Latin American countries, and has recently been revealed to be a single genetic species throughout its entire range. It is currently threatened throughout its territory for three main reasons.
Illegal hunting by poachers
Dramatic habitat loss due to deforestation
Reductions in natural prey causing jaguars to hunt livestock, inciting retaliation from ranchers
Jaguars once roamed freely from southern South America all the way up to the southern United States, but populations are now shrinking rapidly as a result of devastating habitat loss and poaching. Many traditional jaguar migration routes that are important to the genetic health of the species have been severely disrupted by human development.
In Central America this is exacerbated by the narrow width of the land bridge, where one major highway or dam can critically obstruct the flow of jaguar migration. The map below shows the jaguar’s approximate present range.
JAGUAR CORRIDORS
In order to prevent jaguar populations from becoming irreversibly fragmented or “islandised” a multi-nation effort was required. In 1990 the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) joined forces with the governments and conservationists of Latin America to establish the world's first comprehensive effort to save the jaguar.
The project was named Paseo Pantera or the “Path of the Panther”, which aims to link core jaguar populations from Argentina to Mexico in order to create a reproductive corridor in which to preserve their genetic integrity so that jaguars can live in the wild indefinitely.
196 potential jaguar corridors have been identified across its range, 44 of which are highlighted as being under serious threat from human intervention. Of the 44 corridors under threat there is one that stands out as being of key importance to the international genetic mobility of the species, because it links the northern jaguar populations of Mexico and Central America with the southern populations of South America. It is the Barbilla-Destierro Corridor in Costa Rica.
This photo was taken recently in the Barbilla-Destierro Corridor.
THE BARBILLA-DESTIERRO CORRIDOR
Costa Rica's Barbilla-Destierro Corridor was first identified as an area of key importance to the connectivity of the species by the Paseo Pantera project in 1990. This discovery was re-confirmed in 1996 by the results of the Meso-American Biological Corridor Project.
In 1999 the WCS brought together 35 experts to reach a consensus on the first plan for the conservation of the jaguar. Core jaguar population nucleuses were defined throughout its range, and the Central Volcanic Cordillera and the Cordillera de Talamanca were highlighted as two of the principle Jaguar Conservation Units in Costa Rica. The Barbilla-Destierro Corridor is important because acts a vital land bridge between these two key jaguar populations.
The map below shows the geographical position of the Barbilla Corridor.
CORRIDOR CONSERVATION
In 2007 the WCS began the process of field validation to establish the true distribution of jaguars and their prey. The Barbilla-Destierro Corridor in Costa Rica was the first area to be validated due to its strategic importance for the connectivity of the species.
The urgency of conserving the corridor was further underlined when SINAC’s zoning program for biodiversity discovered that there were several “conservation holes” within the corridor’s boundaries. Conservation holes are defined as those areas “with unique flora and fauna composition that are not currently being adequately protected.”
When jaguars reach maturity they feel the natural urge to travel away from their place of birth to establish their own new home territory. The jaguar corridors they use to migrate need not necessarily be made up of pristine forest. Transient jaguars may pass through cattle ranches, agricultural plantations or even someones’s backyard in order to relocate.
By facilitating reforestation and encouraging responsible environmental stewardship we aim to strengthen the Barbilla-Destierro Corridor so that jaguars and other wildcats may continue to migrate across the Reventazon Valley indefinitely.
