Here's proof yet again that trail cameras are an essential tool in the conservation of endangered species around the world.
In early 2024, NGOs (non-profit, non-governmental organizations) Ecoforensics and DECOIN (Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag) set up trail cameras in Junín Community Forest, in northwestern Ecuador, where the cameras managed to capture footage of a jaguar – the first spotted in the area in 15 years.
Previously, in 2023, the first trail camera survey in the Río Manduriacu Reserve from the Central University of Ecuador – in collaboration with the EcoMinga Foundation and the Andean Condor Foundation (also in northwestern Ecuador’s Andean region) – filmed a jaguar, the first time in seven years that one had been seen in the reserve.
The teams then compared their footage, and through careful analysis of the trail camera data, including the animals’ fur patterns, showed that it was the same jaguar.
Study co-author Javier Torres, a professor at the Central University of Ecuador, told conservation news site Mongabay in an email that ongoing habitat loss in the lowland habitats that jaguars prefer, such as the Chocó forests, could be pushing them to higher-elevation areas, such as the Río Manduriacu reserve, “as they search for new territories.
“This shift is particularly concerning for the Critically Endangered western population of jaguars, which faces greater threats compared to the eastern population,” he said.
A few months before the jaguar was spotted in Junín, a court had ordered that mining activity be stopped in the area. “This may suggest that jaguars may have avoided the area previously due to disturbances from mining and other human activities,” the study says.
This also suggests that the evidence only obtainable on trail cameras of jaguars returning to the area after mining ceased has proven a direct link between mining and detrimental effects on local wildlife.
Jaguars are endangered in Ecuador, as are Andean bears that were also filmed during the trail camera studies. Torres said the evidence of the two species gathered by the trail cameras means they will now conduct extensive biodiversity monitoring across the Imbabura province which covers both forests.
The researchers also suggest that local authorities provide education for communities in the areas, as jaguars are among the species most targeted in retaliatory killings in the Americas.
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