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With rare mammal tourism, observing means conserving (commentary)

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At the turn of this century, seeing a wild jaguar was exceptionally difficult. People driving through the Jaguar Ecological Reserve in the Pantanal in Brazil would very occasionally get a glimpse of one crossing the road, but photographing them in the wild was considered almost impossible. The same was true for other large iconic cat species including snow leopards and puma, but just 20 years later all three species can be easily seen in a few days, in the right areas. Visitors to the Pantanal can now see multiple jaguars in just one day, and behaviors previously seldom witnessed or photographed, like hunting and mating, or mothers interacting with their cubs, are now regularly recorded. And excellent puma sightings are practically guaranteed in Chile, while snow leopards – once named the ‘grey ghost’ – are regularly seen in various locations in the Indian Himalayas, Mongolia and China. What changed? The answer is tourism. Wildlife-based tourism has long been an important income earner for many governments: think of Africa’s safari industry centered around viewing iconic large mammals or visitors to Borneo seeking mammals including orangutans, while in Madagascar, lemur watching is a vital part of the  poor country’s tourism industry. But, today, many other places – and mammals – are starting to get in on the act. The Onçafari Project in the Pantanal of Brazil caters to visitors eager to see jaguars, even in mundane places like outside of this caiman farm. Image by Onçafari Project guide Mario Nélson Cleto, who…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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