One of the main causes of the decline of the jaguar population in Argentina is hunting — reprisal for the big cats' attacks on livestock –, according to the report “Identification of Jaguar-Human Conflicts in Northern Salta, Argentina,” published this month by the Red Yaguareté (Jaguar Network). According to the report, in 2006-2007, in 79 areas in the north of Salta province, jaguars took 417 cows, and the ranchers responded by killing 10 of the wild cats, known as Panthera onca.

“We recommend modifying cattle management, which moves with little or no regulation through jaguar habitat, by building fences and choosing grazing areas,” Nicolás Lodeiro Ocampo, co-author of the study, told Tierramérica.

The jaguar roams across 62 percent of its original habitat in South America. In Argentina it survives in the north, but its population has dropped 85 percent.