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Jaguars in Jujuy – a sign of healthy mountain ecosystems

01.04.2021

For the last ten years, Fundación ProYungas – a member of the Mountain Partnership since 2005 – has been monitoring biodiversity in northern Argentina with camera traps. Monitoring occurs in the territories of companies participating in the Protected Productive Landscape programme. To date, the camera traps have recorded more than 10 000 sightings, corresponding to some 34 species of mammals in 17 locations in the provinces of Formosa, Jujuy, Salta and Tucumán.

The information collected has helped to improve species distribution maps, to rediscover some species thought to be extinct in certain places, to understand species' cycle of daily activities throughout the year, and to evaluate the use of low- and high-intensity productive spaces and their associated infrastructure by local wildlife.

Recently, a jaguar (Panthera onca) was spotted on a camera trap in a native forest reserve in the Yungas – a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains – of Jujuy province. The area where the sighting occurred falls within the territory of the sugar factory Ledesma. The jaguar is the largest feline in the Americas. According to the IUCN Red List, the species is near threatened. Its presence is a positive indicator of the good condition of the ecosystem and of the land use plan of the company, a "pioneer of the Protected Productive Landscape programme", according to Fundación ProYungas.

Watch the video of the jaguar sighting

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News and photo by Fundación ProYungas