Jaguar tourism in Porto Jofre, a remote outpost in the Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil, has become so successful that researchers now say it needs new rules to survive. Brazil’s Pantanal is home to the second-largest population of jaguars (Panthera onca) in the world (after the Brazilian Amazon). An estimated 4,000-6,000 of the big cats live in the region, many concentrated around the Porto Jofre area, where just a few decades ago jaguars were almost completely wiped out by poaching. Today, Porto Jofre hosts the world’s highest density of jaguars since the introduction of jaguar tourism. However, a new study warns that this success has created risks. As jaguars become habituated to humans, with sightings nearly guaranteed, growing crowds on the river threaten to diminish the experience and ultimately destabilize a business that, so far, has protected the jaguars. “When one is spotted, everyone rushes over, which creates a huge crowd and ruins the experience,” study co-author Rafael Chiaravalloti, a quantitative environmental anthropologist at University College London, told Mongabay by phone. According to the Jaguar ID Project, the number of jaguars accustomed to human presence rose from 29 to 130 between 2013 and 2023. Jaguars usually shy away from humans, so the phenomenon is relatively new, and changes the way jaguar tourism operates. Tourists now routinely see multiple cats in a single day, and some tour companies offer refunds if no jaguar is spotted. When jaguar sightings were rare, guides ensured viewings by sharing jaguar locations over open radio channels.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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