Editorial
Guyana's Coat of Arms[ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] displays two jaguars - proud-looking fellows seemingly in their prime - holding up a shield bearing the national flower, Victoria Regia Lily. The shield also has three wavy lines depicting our three major rivers; and the national bird Canje Pheasant. The jaguars also hold a pickaxe, sugar cane and a stalk of rice and appear to be looking up at an Amerindian headdress symbolizing the indigenous people of the country. It can be deduced then, that the jaguar, said to be the rarest of big cats in the world, must be the national animal.
Stabroek News
August 14, 2001
But what if this rare animal disappeared from Guyana altogether?
There are nine species of the jaguar, scientific name Panthera onca, which now inhabit the north and central parts of the South American continent and Texas in the USA. Previously, the jaguar could be found throughout the southern states of the USA down to the tip of South America. But during the 1960s and the 1970s they were hunted and killed for their coats.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] estimated that jaguars were killed at the rate of 18,000 a year. Research showed that in one year, over 13,000 jaguar pelts were exported, to be fashioned into fur coats. The WWF has listed the jaguar's status on its website as 'near threatened'.
According to WWF estimates, there are now only about 15,000 jaguars left in the wild. There may be a few hundred in zoos and wildlife parks around the world. The Guyana Zoological Park has two.
Man is the jaguar's greatest enemy, hunting and killing the animal for sport and competing with it for some of its wildlife prey (deer, agouti and fish). The jaguar has also earned man's aversion because of its taste for large domestic livestock such as cattle and horses. But the WWF notes that unlike many other big cats - apart from man - the jaguar has no rivals. The jaguar does not hunt humans.
Earlier this year, a contributor to Stabroek News' letter column furnished this newspaper with written and photographic evidence of jaguar poaching in Guyana's interior, being done for no obvious reason, since the trade in pelts is illegal.
But apart from the danger, which it faces from human hunters and poachers, another major threat to the jaguar's survival is deforestation for mining and timber, which is drastically affecting its prey base as well as fragmenting its population.
Conservation efforts centre on the establishment of protected areas, which may serve to reduce the decline of the jaguars' natural habitat. For example, in Belize, the government, aided by the WWF, has set aside 150 square miles of rainforest in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Preserve, which currently provides a protected environment for around 200 jaguars, said to be the largest concentration of this wildcat species in the world.
Some years ago, conservationists set up a protected beach here for near extinct sea turtles and began education programmes in the areas where they were hunted for their meat and eggs. This programme has seen remarkable success, though there is still much work to be done.
For the sake of posterity, a similar project is needed for the jaguar. This would perhaps require a great deal more expertise, expanse of land and outlay of capital. Maybe an approach can be made to the WWF for assistance and Belize's project studied for local adaptation. In the short term, however, conservation education would make a big difference. It would be a real shame if our children's grandchildren were only able to see the national animal electronically.