It’s said that lions and tigers stalk the semiarid scrubland of Paraguay’s Chaco region. Yet this is the heart of South America, oceans away from the natural habitat of either of those big cats. Here, “tiger” refers to the jaguar, and “lion” to the puma. The former is three times larger than the latter, and as apex predators sharing the same habitat, their coexistence is a fraught one, but in many ways also beneficial. “They are two big cats; they have the same problems and the same possible solutions to reduce conflicts,” says Laura Villalba, a biologist and coordinator of the jaguar program carried out by the Paraguayan branch of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). “Because of the situation regarding jaguar populations, most conservation efforts are geared toward this species, but anything done for one species is useful for the other.” Jeffrey Thompson, co-coordinator of the jaguar program at another conservation NGO, Guyra Paraguay, notes the contrast in the cats’ respective conservation status: the jaguar (Panthera onca) is considered critically endangered in Paraguay, while the more populous puma (Puma concolor) is considered a species of least concern. A juvenile puma photographed on camera trap. Image courtesy of WCS Paraguay. The northernmost corners of the Gran Chaco, the second-largest forest on the continent, after the Amazon, occupy the northern strip of Indigenous Guaraní land along Paraguay’s border with Bolivia. The area is home to national parks, reserves, public and private natural monuments, and biosphere reserves, all of which form a mosaic…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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