Jaguar in the Brazilian Pantanal.
Live jaguars can be worth considerably more for ecotourism than they livestock they kill, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Bonito, Brazil.
Henrique Concone, a biologist with the wildlife conservation group Pró-Carnívoros, and Fernando Azevedo analyzed revenue generated from night tours at Fazenda Sao Francisco, a ranch in the southern Pantanal in Brazil, and compared it with losses caused by jaguar predation. They found that during a five-year period, revenue from nearly 12,000 night tour participants amounted to $497,000, while the loss of 44 head of cattle from jaguar attacks cost the ranch $18,444.
Concone said that while there are no guarantees tourists will spot a live jaguar, the relatively high probability of seeing one (24 percent on a given night tour, reflecting the high density in the area) is enough to keep them coming to the 140-square-kilometer ranch.
The study suggests tourism offers a substantial return positive return relative to the risks of maintaining a healthy wild jaguar population. The research didn’t account for revenue generated by other tourism-related activities at the ranch, including food, lodging, and day-time tours.
The findings are significant because ranchers are a leading cause of jaguar mortality in the Pantanal and the Amazon. An economic argument may be the most effective way to convince ranchers not to kill the big cats.
Related articles