Over a 5 year period in the Pantanal section of southern Brazil, a study determined that encouraging Jaguars to exist on ones ranch is a boon for the bottom line.........The Fazenda Sao Francisco Ranch sought out tourists and charged them for a possible chance of seeing a Jaguar in the wild.......The Ranch reaped nearly $500,000 in ecotourism revenue during this period while only losing about $18,000 due to Jaguar predation on cattle.............USA Ranchers,,,,DO THE MATH!...........Diversify into wildlife viewing while simultaneously carrying on your ranching operation and wolves, pumas and Griz can be financial allies for you!

JAGUARS GOOD FOR BUSINESS IN BRAZIL

mongabay.com


Live jaguars can be worth considerably more for ecotourism than they livestock they kill, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Bonito, Brazil.


Henrique Concone, a biologist with the wildlife conservation group Pró-Carnívoros, and Fernando Azevedo analyzed revenue generated from night tours at Fazenda Sao Francisco, a ranch in the southern Pantanal in Brazil, and compared it with losses caused by jaguar predation. They found that during a five-year period, revenue from nearly 12,000 night tour participants amounted to $497,000, while the loss of 44 head of cattle from jaguar attacks cost the ranch $18,444.

Jaguar photographed in the Pantanal region of southern Brazil

Concone said that while there are no guarantees tourists will spot a live jaguar, the relatively high probability of seeing one (24 percent on a given night tour, reflecting the high density in the area) is enough to keep them coming to the 140-square-kilometer ranch.

The study suggests tourism offers a substantial return positive return relative to the risks of maintaining a healthy wild jaguar population. The research didn't account for revenue generated by other tourism-related activities at the ranch, including food, lodging, and day-time tours.

The findings are significant because ranchers are a leading cause of jaguar mortality in the Pantanal and the Amazon. An economic argument may be the most effective way to convince ranchers not to kill the big cats.