The Mesoamerican hotspot is home to a tremendous variety of wildlife and biological diversity. While protecting these species’ habitat through conservation leases is an important first step, ongoing wildlife research is also a powerful conservation tool. By researching the needs and characteristics of different species, Rainforest2Reef can offer persuasive evidence for better conservation and guidance on crafting effective conservation actions.

Currently, Rainforest2Reef focuses our wildlife research on two areas: jaguars and migratory birds.

Jaguar research

Jaguars are only found in the Western Hemisphere, and have already lost two thirds of their habitat in Mexico and Central America. As its rainforest dwindles and threats like man-made habitat loss and fragmentation, agriculture, urbanization and illegal hunting increase, the jaguars’ numbers are going down. As of today only an estimated 15,000 jaguars remain in the wild, 6,000 of which live in North and Central America.

The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve within the Selva Maya rainforest is one of the last habitats large enough to sustain a viable jaguar population, and the preservation of this habitat is one of the central reasons for the founding of Rainforest2Reef.

Of all the large cats of the world, jaguars are ecologically the least known. Better understanding of the jaguar will be critical to any and all conservation efforts, and so Rainforest2Reef is promoting a number of research efforts on this majestic animal.

What we’ve learned so far: Habitat needs of the jaguar

Rainforest2Reef partner the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has been tracking and radio collaring jaguars within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve for 10 years. In these studies, we have gained valuable insight into how much undisturbed habitat is needed to maintain a viable jaguar population.

Through this research, we have found that, in the entire Western Hemisphere, only the rainforests of Mexico and Guatemala are large enough to maintain a jaguar population larger than 400 individuals. We have also discovered interesting characteristics of the jaguar’s use of this habitat, namely that within each individual’s home-range, jaguars live and forage in a small sub-area of this range for periods of 7-10 days and then move on to another small area with an abundance of new prey. This continuous movement permits the hunter to take advantage of the entire home range without decreasing the abundance of prey populations.

Already, these results are guiding Rainforest2Reef’s conservation efforts. Thanks to these studies, we now know that any strategy for the long-term maintenance of a jaguar population must consider the size and connectivity of reserves as well as the minimum population size of jaguars in specific reserves.

Trivia and Additional Resources

Some interesting facts about the jaguar…

• Size: The jaguar is the third largest feline in the world, after tigers and lions, and the largest feline in the Americas.
  
• The jaguar’s name: The word “jaguar” comes from the word “yaguara”, which in Guarani (the languages of the Guarani Indians in South America) and means “beast that kills with one leap.”
  
• Lifespan: Wild jaguars can live between 12 and 16 years. Jaguars in captivity live up to 20 years.
  
• Offspring: The average litter size is one to four cubs. Cubs remain with their mothers for two years.
  
• Prey: The jaguar prey base is diverse, including such species as peccaries (wild pigs), capybaras (large rodents), deer, sloths, caymans, tapirs, freshwater fish and smaller animals. They occasionally prey on domestic livestock, a reason why they are targeted by ranchers.
  
• Roar: Click here to hear a jaguar sound:
  http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/animals/BigCats.shtml
  

Want to learn more about the jaguar? Check out these informative sites…

• The BBC’s Science and Nature page on jaguars:
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/18.shtml
  
• The One World Journey page about jaguars in Mexico:
  http://www.oneworldjourneys.com/jaguar/index2.html

Bird research

The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, an area within the Selva Maya rainforest, is an extremely important bird habitat. At last count, over 350 species of birds either inhabit or migrate through this land. This represents 33% of all bird species in Mexico. Due to man-made threats and habitat loss, over 100 of these bird populations are currently considered endangered.

Because conserving habitat for birds must address migratory habitats even outside of the rainforest, Rainforest2Reef is exploring innovative partnerships and programs in order to more effectively understand and preserve these bird populations.  

From New Jersey to the Yucatan, a partnership for migratory birds

Of the over 350 bird species that have been identified within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve of the Selva Maya rainforest, 60% of these are migratory and many of these birds spend their summers in the US.

In a groundbreaking conservation partnership, Rainforest2Reef is working with New Jersey’s D&R Greenway Land Trust to preserve a flyway used by over 60 bird species that winter in the rainforests of the Yucatan and breed in New Jersey. Together we aim to build a research station within the Reserve that will promote sound research and understanding of birds like cedar waxwings, ovenbirds, rose-breasted grosbeaks, indigo buntings and Baltimore orioles.

Expanding our bird monitoring efforts

In the coming years we intend to undertake a bird research and monitoring program with the objective of developing strategies for the management and conservation of the 356 bird species found in the Yucatan region.  The main goal of the program is to determine their habitat requirements and the effects that human activities are having on bird species. By expanding our bird monitoring program we hope to inform a regional long-term strategy for protecting an ecological corridor connecting the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to other protected areas in Guatemala to the south.