{"id":108484,"date":"2025-07-31T20:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108484\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:54:11","slug":"trail-cameras-catch-jaguars-in-brazil-acting-just-like-house-cats-and-scientists-are-using-the-behaviour-to-protect-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108484\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail cameras catch jaguars in Brazil acting just like house cats \u2013 and scientists are using the behaviour to protect them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers in\u00a0Brazil\u00a0have found a surprisingly effective way of protecting\u00a0jaguars\u00a0\u2013 using car mats.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jaguars<\/a> in Brazil often come into conflict with humans because of how close people live to these animals. These big cats<\/a> are impacted by pollution and habitat loss caused by urban development and are also killed by farmers in retaliation if they hunt their livestock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese pressures undoubtedly create a complex scenario for the jaguars,\u201d says Paul Raad, founder and president of\u00a0IMPACTO<\/a>\u00a0Institute (Institute for Mitigation of Environmental Problems with Traditional Communities and Jaguars), which studies a jaguar population that lives close to a city called Pocon\u00e9 in central Brazil. One particular challenge is \u201cthe presence of mining companies, which form the backbone of the city\u2019s economy,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

IMPACTO studies the health of the jaguars \u2013 by collecting hair samples that could be analysed for contamination \u2013 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\u00a0Pantanal<\/a>, who depend on the same environment, are affected too,\u201d says Raad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to years of study, the Institute has an in-depth understanding of their local\u00a0jaguar population<\/a>. \u201cWe already know their favourite trees and dens along roads where they tend to rest,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, even with this knowledge, collecting hair samples proved challenging. \u201cAs curious animals (much like domestic cats), they naturally rub against objects,\u201d Raad explains. But even though the scientists knew exactly which spots the jaguars liked to rub up against, they didn\u2019t have an effective way of collecting the hairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried adhesive tape and Velcro, but they didn\u2019t like it and simply avoided touching it,\u201d he says. \u201cThese\u00a0big cats<\/a>\u00a0are agile, intelligent, and sensitive; they\u2019ll avoid anything they find unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThen one day, I got into a friend\u2019s car and she apologised for the mess her\u00a0dogs<\/a>\u00a0made, saying, ‘I can\u2019t get their hair out of this floor mat, it\u2019s stuck!’,\u201d Raad recalls. “That\u2019s when the lightbulb went off: we needed mats made of that material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armed with his new idea, the team at IMPACTO set to work, laying these hair traps in the jaguar\u2019s preferred trees and dens, and around prey carcasses, knowing the cats would return to feed on them later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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,\u201d says Raad, who noted \u201chow much they resemble house cats in this regard!\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Their findings are published in the journal\u00a0Animals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The researchers worked with S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP) Botucatu to analyse the hair for genetic information and\u00a0mercury<\/a> contamination \u2013 small-scale gold mining can cause mercury pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d says\u00a0L\u00edgia Souza Lima Silveira da Mota<\/a>\u00a0at the university\u2019s department of genetics, microbiology, and immunology (Institute of Biosciences).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis technique enables researchers to obtain valuable materials without direct contact with the animals,\u201d she says, adding that conservation biology is a \u201crelatively new\u201d but \u201cincreasingly vital\u201d field in the fight to conserve wildlife. “We are always proud to contribute in a meaningful way to the preservation of Brazilian biodiversity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"ResearcherResearcher removes jaguar hair from mat. Credit: IMPACTO Institute<\/p>\n

This non-invasive way of collecting samples isn\u2019t just good for jaguars (because they don\u2019t have to capture individuals, it\u2019s much less stressful for the animals), it also makes science more accessible to local researchers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil now, biological banks and sample access were usually restricted to large international NGOs with significant funding, often not local,\u201d says Raad. \u201cWe wanted to change that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brazilian researchers have historically experienced a lack of funding. \u201cOur goal is to democratise jaguar science so that it doesn\u2019t remain in the hands of only a few,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Raad says that local researchers don\u2019t let funding challenges hold them back. Latin American scientists have \u201clearned to work with limited resources but abundant creativity and determination,\u201d he says. \u201cTo do science, sometimes all you need is ingenuity and dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Image (including top image) and video credit: IMPACTO\u00a0Institute\u00a0\/\u00a0impactoinstituto.org.br<\/a><\/p>\n

More amazing wildlife stories from around the world<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers in\u00a0Brazil\u00a0have found a surprisingly effective way of protecting\u00a0jaguars\u00a0\u2013 using car mats.\u00a0 Jaguars in Brazil often come into…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-108484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114949840172449940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}