Guardians of Nature - Living with the Jaguar
, Viasat Nature/Crime
The world?s third-largest cat ? after the lion and tiger ? has struggled for survival on the South American continent for years. Too precious is the fearless animal?s pelt. Conditions for the feline predator only improved in Brazil after ratification of the Endangered Species Convention. Today, there are thought to be at least 8000 Jaguars in the Pantanal, a huge wetland of rivers, jungles and seasonally flooded savannahs. But while a photographer and several researchers fight for the preservation of the Pantanal animals, many ranchers secretly try to poison the jaguars on their ranges. As we still don?t know enough about the animals? habits, the scientists equip them with tracer collars to follow their movements in the densely populated south Pantanal. In the North, photographer Douglas Trent follows the animal population in a remote natural preserve. He has been able to track down over 20 animals and capture them on film, even locating the first Jaguar he ever found again, which is now old and dying: A whole jaguar life lies in between the two pictures he has of this beast.