The key facts

  • Camera traps of Panthera and CONAP captured a jaguar in Guatemala — experts estimate such footage occurs roughly once every ten years.
  • A natural corridor along the Guatemala–Honduras border links jaguar populations of Belize, Guatemala and Mexico with groups in central and eastern Honduras.
  • About 89% of the world's jaguars live in the Amazon basin; small isolated groups in Guatemala and Honduras face more serious threats.

A rare sighting

Camera traps installed by Panthera, an organization dedicated to the conservation of wild cats, and Guatemala's National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) captured a jaguar in a Guatemalan forest. Allison Devlin, Panthera's jaguar conservation program director, and Franklin Castañeda, head of the organization's Honduras branch, told People that footage like this is extremely rare to obtain. According to them, the images are important proof that jaguars continue to inhabit the region despite numerous threats.

Why the forest corridor matters

A natural corridor running along the Guatemala–Honduras border connects the jaguar populations of Belize, Guatemala and Mexico with groups in the central and eastern parts of Honduras. This connection, as noted in the publication, reduces the risk of isolation of animal groups and inbreeding. Forest fragmentation, on the contrary, restricts the movement of animals and can further weaken individual populations.

The overall situation with the species

According to the estimates cited in the material, about 89% of the world's jaguars live in the Amazon basin, where a large population largely determines the state of the species as a whole. Small isolated groups in countries such as Guatemala and Honduras face more serious threats.

Expanding understanding of the range

Previously, the distribution of jaguars in Guatemala was associated mainly with the forests of Petén. New observations show the presence of these animals also in the Sierra de las Minas mountains in the east of the country and in the Izabal natural corridor along the Caribbean coast. Conservationists emphasize that the significance of the rare footage is not limited to recording a secretive predator: it also points to the need to preserve continuous forest areas through which jaguars can move.