Dr Yara Barros, Season 2 Episode 2
“Shy, incredibly powerful, they are the biggest cat in America….” and jaguars are free to roam Iguaçu National Park in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, home to one of the world’s biggest waterfalls and 185,000 hectares of lush and diverse sub-tropical broadleaf forest. They are also Critically Endangered locally.
“If you remove your fear glasses and you really look at them, you see that they just want to be jaguars,” Dr Yara Barros tells Kate Humble and Edward Whitley. “They don’t want to kill you. They don’t want to harm. They just want to hunt, raise their cubs, live in peace in the forest.”
Yara is executive coordinator of Project Jaguars of Iguaçu and arguably the species’ biggest champion. Her team is on call 24/7 to ensure the survival of the apex predator, taking action to both defuse and prevent conflict with the inhabitants of the ten cities surrounding the park.
Jaguar numbers more than doubled to 25 individuals in the park thanks to the work of Yara’s small team to continuously monitor the species and raise awareness with local communities.
Read the transcript here.
NEWS FROM YARA
Since winning a Whitley Award in April, camera traps have enabled Project Jaguars of Iguaçu to identify 28 individual jaguars. Included in the 29 species captured on camera was the first recording of a Crested Eagle, a near threatened species. Yara reports that there are now six female jaguars with seven cubs living in the park.
Project Jaguars conducted 240 visits to 65 properties around the park to strengthen its message on peaceful coexistence. The team started a campaign to vaccinate more than 350 domestic cats and dogs that live locally, taking blood samples to test for diseases that could be a challenge for jaguars.
Yara met with Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva, and won a Wings Women of Discovery award in NYC in October.
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Episode and banner image credit: Emilio White
