Two separate camera-trap surveys have captured videos and images of jaguars in two different forests in Ecuador’s northwest, where the animal hadn’t been spotted for several years. Subsequent analysis confirmed that it was the same individual moving between the two forests, according to a new study. The first camera-trap survey by researchers from the Central University of Ecuador, the Andean Condor Foundation, and the EcoMinga Foundation recorded a jaguar (Panthera onca) in Río Manduriacu Reserve in northwestern Ecuador’s Andean region in November 2023. This was the first time in seven years a jaguar had been seen in the reserve. Then, in early 2024, NGOs DECOIN and Ecoforensics, along with local ecologists, set up two more camera traps in a mining concession in the Junín Community Forest, also in northwestern Ecuador, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Manduriacu. These cameras, too, recorded a jaguar, the first sighting there in 15 years. After sharing their footage, the two groups’ collaborative analysis of the animals’ fur patterns confirmed that both surveys had spotted the same individual jaguar. The study notes the jaguar “seems to have taken a circuitous route through forested and human-altered zones for almost two months.” Study co-author Javier Torres, a professor at the Central University of Ecuador, told Mongabay in an email that ongoing habitat loss in the lowland habitats that jaguars prefer, such as the Chocó forests, could be pushing jaguars to higher-elevation areas, such as the Río Manduriacu reserve, “as they search for new territories.” “This shift is…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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