Juma, the jaguar
If you’ve checked the news this morning, you have seen the news that a jaguar, who was being used as a prop for the Olympic torch, was shot and killed after she escaped from her enclosure. According to reports, the jaguar was a 17-year-old female named Juma who was being kept at a zoo that is part of a military base in Manaus, the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon.
While this is undoubtedly the case, there is a large context missing from the conversation surrounding the death of this glorious animal.
The fact that there are only around 15,000 jaguars left in the wild and they are being rapidly pushed into extinction by our appetite for meat. The Pantanal region of Brazil is the largest tropical wetland in the world, and it is also home to the highest density of jaguars as well. Unfortunately, the growth of cattle ranching in the country is systematically destroying this natural haven and pushing the jaguar into oblivion. According to experts from Rainforest Trust, “Ninety-eight percent of the Pantanal is privately owned and 80 percent of those lands are used as cattle ranches. These ranches – there are about 2,500 – hold nearly 8 million heads of cattle.”
With the expansion of ranching, the jaguars have been reduced to a mere 46 percent of their original range and overall an estimated 54 percent of their native habitat has been destroyed. As their native habitat declines and humans encroach on their territory to expand pastureland and raise livestock, the jaguar is targeted as a threat to livestock – and all too often shot on site or poisoned on ranching lands.
RP: One Green Planet
While this is undoubtedly the case, there is a large context missing from the conversation surrounding the death of this glorious animal.
The fact that there are only around 15,000 jaguars left in the wild and they are being rapidly pushed into extinction by our appetite for meat. The Pantanal region of Brazil is the largest tropical wetland in the world, and it is also home to the highest density of jaguars as well. Unfortunately, the growth of cattle ranching in the country is systematically destroying this natural haven and pushing the jaguar into oblivion. According to experts from Rainforest Trust, “Ninety-eight percent of the Pantanal is privately owned and 80 percent of those lands are used as cattle ranches. These ranches – there are about 2,500 – hold nearly 8 million heads of cattle.”
With the expansion of ranching, the jaguars have been reduced to a mere 46 percent of their original range and overall an estimated 54 percent of their native habitat has been destroyed. As their native habitat declines and humans encroach on their territory to expand pastureland and raise livestock, the jaguar is targeted as a threat to livestock – and all too often shot on site or poisoned on ranching lands.
RP: One Green Planet
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