Jaguar Tourism In Brazil’s Pantanal Needs New Rules To Avoid Collapse: Study

Jaguar tourism in Porto Jofre, a remote outpost in the Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil, has become so successful that researchers now say it needs new rules to survive.

Brazil’s Pantanal is home to the second-largest population of jaguars (Panthera onca) in the world (after the Brazilian Amazon). An estimated 4,000-6,000 of the big cats live in the region, many concentrated around the Porto Jofre area, where just a few decades ago jaguars were almost complete-ly wiped out by poaching. Today, Porto Jofre hosts the world’s highest density of jaguars since the introduction of jaguar tourism.

However, a new study warns that this success has created risks. As jaguars become habituated to humans, with sightings nearly…