Camera Traps Capture Wild Jaguars in Oil Palm Plantation in Colombia
Posted on June 6, 2012
Panthera's camera traps have produced the first photographic evidence of wild jaguars with cubs in an oil palm plantation in Colombia. Placed in the Magdalena River valley, the camera traps were set by Panthera to gather new data about the impact of Colombia's oil palm plantations on jaguars. Panthera's scientists are working to understand the implications of these habitat changes on jaguars and their ability to travel and reproduce, as well as the impacts palm plantations have on their prey species. Panthera says oil palm plantations result in the clearing of expansive tracts of forest on which thousands of animal and plant species depend.
Panthera's Northern South America Jaguar Program Director, Dr. Esteban Payan, says, "Typically, jaguars can move across human-dominated landscapes by travelling through riparian forests or using road underpasses, but until now, scientists had no photographic proof that jaguars entered oil palm developments in this region."/p>