by William Ysaguirre

HATTIEVILLE, Belize District, Thurs. Nov. 21, 2024

A week shy of International Jaguar Day, the Forest Department partnered with the Belize Zoo to help rescue a young jaguar which a Hattieville villager had captured inside his storeroom on Thursday morning, November 21.

The juvenile jaguar had taken refuge inside the storeroom when it was chased by dogs in the village, and the owner of the property closed the storeroom doors to protect the endangered animal from further harm. He then informed the Forest Department, and Forestry officers and Zoo officials came to drug the animal with a sedative to make it easier to transport to the Belize Zoo, where it received a comprehensive health assessment.

Forestry officials anticipate that once the jaguar’s health is verified, it will be tagged with a tracking device and released back into the wild, so that jaguar researchers may monitor its movements and study its behavior. The well-being of the jaguar is a priority of the department, and for it to live in harmony with its human neighbors.

Jaguar conservationists have found themselves in conflict at times with cattle ranchers, who have felt the need to shoot a problem jaguar to protect their livestock. The Forest Department will continue to work to promote a better understanding of this beautiful but threatened apex predator among our people.

“Keep Wildlife in the Wild” is Belize’s theme, as our country honors the jaguar in Jaguar Month, which is celebrated globally. In the interest of preserving the jaguar, the Government of Belize has created the National Protected Areas System which has 26 percent of Belize’s land area under some form of biodiversity or wildlife protection; and in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have created the Maya Forest Corridor so that Wildlife may traverse from one habitat to another protected area, between the Selva Maya in the north and the Maya Mountains in the south. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has also partnered in the process, buying thousands of acres of private land to be part of the Selva Maya.

The jaguar is primarily nocturnal, a solitary predator that hunts alone, but occasional daylight sightings have been captured on video by motion-sensor trail-cameras planted along nature trails on the property of Chan Chich Lodge in the Gallon Jug area of northern Belize.

This apex predator is present throughout Meso-America, and a healthy population thrives in Belize, because almost 65 percent of our land area is still under forest cover. Through the years since 2004, jaguar conservation and other wildlife protection groups in Belize have received financial support from the Ford Motor Company, which manufactures the famous Jaguar motorcar. The Ford Conservation Grant offers funding up to USD$10,000, while the Jaguar Conservation Trust offers grants of up to USD$50,000.