Introduction: Meet a Jaguar Biologist

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Meet a Jaguar Biologist

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz. © WCS
	Meet a Jaguar Biologist Dr. Alan Rabinowitz is a preeminent conservation biologist. In 1985, his research in the Cockscomb Basin of Belize led to the world's first jaguar sanctuary. His research and explorations over the last decade have taken him to many rugged, unexplored places, including mountain ranges in the Annamite Mountains between Laos and Vietnam and the eastern edge of the Himalayan Mountains of northern Myanmar.

His life goal is to find and survey the world's last wild places and to save as much land as he can for some of the world's most endangered large mammals.

Dr. Rabinowitz wants to establish a contiguous wild jaguar corridor on public and private lands throughout Central and South America. "My task today is not about saving a few wild jaguars or even about simply securing some important, beautiful areas where jaguars live," he says.

"My goal is to save jaguars throughout their entire range, from Mexico to Argentina, by creating and securing a natural corridor on public and private lands where jaguars can thrive well into the future."

The word "corridor" might conjure up a linear image, but this is not really what Dr. Rabinowitz means. "Our objective," he says, "is to create a permeable jaguar landscape, not a contiguous set of protected areas." This idea is to achieve an "unbroken jaguar-friendly habitat, both on public and private lands."

Find out more about Alan Rabinowitz

Threats

In this section, we have highlighted the four main threats to jaguars. Draw a diagram in which you illustrate how those threats are related. Link the threats with arrows indicating how one causes or reinforces another. How does, for example, habitat loss or fragmentation influence poaching?


	If you were Dr. Rabinowitz, what would you need to know about jaguars in order to conserve them. What are the key questions you would need to answer?

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VIDEO
Alan Rabinowitz at work.


	QUESTION Why is it not enough to save one small area or one population of jaguars?

To better understand the jaguar-to estimate their population and assess their survival status-conservation biologists are working throughout the places where jaguar are believed to live.
See the jaguar's current approximate range.

VIDEO
Find out how Rabinowitz's work with animals began in childhood.

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Field Notebook