Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Keeping an Eye on the Jaguar

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA, Sep 9 2006 (IPS) - Fifteen research and photo stations deep in the jungles of the northern Guatemalan department of El Petén are tracking the behavior of jaguars, which face extinction due to deforestation and over-hunting. The preliminary results indicate success, because within a six-square-kilometer perimeter seven jaguars have been recorded, Roan McNab, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Guatemala, told Tierramérica.

Several environmental organizations, the public University of San Carlos, and the Ministry of Culture are participating in this monitoring project, one of whose objectives is to determine how many of these big cats live in El Petén, which borders Mexico.