Researchers in Brazil have found a surprisingly effective way of protecting jaguars – using car mats.
Jaguars in Brazil often come into conflict with humans because of how close people live to these animals. These big cats are impacted by pollution and habitat loss caused by urban development and are also killed by farmers in retaliation if they hunt their livestock.
“These pressures undoubtedly create a complex scenario for the jaguars,” says Paul Raad, founder and president of IMPACTO Institute (Institute for Mitigation of Environmental Problems with Traditional Communities and Jaguars), which studies a jaguar population that lives close to a city called Poconé in central Brazil. One particular challenge is “the presence of mining companies, which form the backbone of the city’s economy,” he says.
IMPACTO studies the health of the jaguars – by collecting hair samples that could be analysed for contamination – to understand more about the health of the ecosystem. "If the jaguars are contaminated, it is highly likely that the traditional fishing communities in the Pantanal, who depend on the same environment, are affected too,” says Raad.
Thanks to years of study, the Institute has an in-depth understanding of their local jaguar population. “We already know their favourite trees and dens along roads where they tend to rest,” he says.
But, even with this knowledge, collecting hair samples proved challenging. “As curious animals (much like domestic cats), they naturally rub against objects,” Raad explains. But even though the scientists knew exactly which spots the jaguars liked to rub up against, they didn’t have an effective way of collecting the hairs.
“We tried adhesive tape and Velcro, but they didn’t like it and simply avoided touching it,” he says. “These big cats are agile, intelligent, and sensitive; they’ll avoid anything they find unpleasant.”
The scientists tried collecting hair from tree trunks or logs but, because other animals also rub up against these, this method risked contaminating their sample with hair from another species.
“Then one day, I got into a friend’s car and she apologised for the mess her dogs made, saying, 'I can’t get their hair out of this floor mat, it’s stuck!',” Raad recalls. "That’s when the lightbulb went off: we needed mats made of that material.”
Armed with his new idea, the team at IMPACTO set to work, laying these hair traps in the jaguar’s preferred trees and dens, and around prey carcasses, knowing the cats would return to feed on them later.
Although they had high hopes that they would be able to collect good hair samples using this new method, they were surprised at just how well it worked. The jaguars loved the mats. "They love lying on rugs and scratching them, which is exactly what we want, as it helps them leave hair behind,” says Raad, who noted “how much they resemble house cats in this regard!”
The mats allowed the experts to reliably capture a significant amount of hair from the animal and cameras that had been set up in the spot confirmed which individual jaguar it was collected from. Their findings are published in the journal Animals.
The researchers worked with São Paulo State University (UNESP) Botucatu to analyse the hair for genetic information and mercury contamination – small-scale gold mining can cause mercury pollution.
“We had the opportunity to design, test, and validate a new non-invasive method for collecting biological samples, specifically hair, from wild felids such as jaguars,” says Lígia Souza Lima Silveira da Mota at the university’s department of genetics, microbiology, and immunology (Institute of Biosciences).
“This technique enables researchers to obtain valuable materials without direct contact with the animals,” she says, adding that conservation biology is a “relatively new” but “increasingly vital” field in the fight to conserve wildlife. "We are always proud to contribute in a meaningful way to the preservation of Brazilian biodiversity,” she says.
This non-invasive way of collecting samples isn’t just good for jaguars (because they don’t have to capture individuals, it’s much less stressful for the animals), it also makes science more accessible to local researchers.
“Until now, biological banks and sample access were usually restricted to large international NGOs with significant funding, often not local,” says Raad. “We wanted to change that.”
Brazilian researchers have historically experienced a lack of funding. “Our goal is to democratise jaguar science so that it doesn’t remain in the hands of only a few,” he says.
But Raad says that local researchers don’t let funding challenges hold them back. Latin American scientists have “learned to work with limited resources but abundant creativity and determination,” he says. “To do science, sometimes all you need is ingenuity and dedication.”
Image (including top image) and video credit: IMPACTO Institute / impactoinstituto.org.br
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