Pacuare Lodge & Costa Rica Nature Adventures Supports Jaguar Research

As part of its growing commitment to environmental protection and sustainable tourism, the Pacuare Lodge owned by the Costa Rican tour operator Costa Rica Nature Adventures is supporting a project to study jaguars in the Pacuare Protected Zone.

Costa Rica Nature Adventures recently signed an agreement with Dr. Eduardo Carrillo, a professor in the Wildlife Management Program at Costa Rica’s Universidad Nacional, to study jaguars in the forest along the Pacuare River.

The tour operator runs daily rafting trips down that spectacular white-water river and its Pacuare Lodge, which is nestled between that river and the jungle, will serve as a base for biologists working on the study.

Dr. Carrillo – one of Latina America’s leading jaguar experts – will direct the study, which will be undertaken by his students. In addition to providing the researchers with food and lodging, Costa Rica Nature Adventures will provide logistical support. The company has also purchased 24 digital cameras that the biologists will place on game trails in the forest at two-kilometer intervals in order to capture images that can help them to estimate the jaguar population, and the abundance of prey species.

According to Roberto Fernández, founder and co-owner of Costa Rica Nature Adventures, this collaboration is a result of his growing concern about conservation and the environment.  “During 20 years of contact with the Pacuare’s amazing natural beauty, I’ve felt a need to contribute to the preservation of its ecosystems. It is as if the river were constantly reminding me of the importance of doing something to relieve the environmental problems that we are causing,” he said.

The largest feline in the Americas, the jaguar was once common from the southwest United States to northern Argentina, but it has been eliminated from more than half of its original range during the past century. Those spotted cats continue to be threatened by hunters and ranchers in Costa Rica, where they are increasingly restricted to isolated protected areas that are too small to sustain their species.

According to Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Regional Vice-President of Conservation International, the study site lies in an essential area for jaguar conservation within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, since it is between the vast wilderness of the Talamanca Cordillera and the forests of Turrialba Volcano.

“The opportunity to support jaguar research is fascinating because it’s such an extraordinary animal,” explained Fernández. “Our hope is that this project will contribute to the development of conservation policies to protect these endangered felines.”

The jaguar project complements Costa Rica Nature Adventures’ comprehensive sustainable tourism policy, which includes efforts to decrease the company’s environmental footprint, benefit communities near the Pacuare River, and contribute to conservation. Those efforts range from recycling programs at all the company’s facilities to planting trees on former pastureland near the river and using wood from reforestation projects in construction of the Pacuare Lodge. Much of the jaguar research will take place in the company’s 258-hectare (637-acre) nature reserve along the Pacuare River, which has been purchased bit by bit in an effort to protect the area’s flora and fauna.

The company is equally concerned about local people, and it works to improve life for Cabecar Indians and non-indigenous communities near the Pacuare River.  Most of the company’s employees are local and it has sponsored school improvements and other projects in communities near the Pacuare Lodge.

“Our philosophy is to give something back to nature, which has given us so much, and to harmonize our activities with nature’s processes,” noted Fernández. “We are trying to educate people, raise awareness, and motivate local communities in order to work together for sustainable development.”

If you would like to support this important research, we invite you to donate to the study. Please fill out the donation form or contact one of our travel consultants at info@pacuarelodge.com .