Nearly 1,500 jaguars killed or displaced by Brazilian fires

Fires in the Amazon have led to the death or displacement of an estimated 1,422 jaguars over three years in Brazil. Fires have increased in Brazil in recent years, many of them started illegally by farmers, ranchers and others looking to clear forests. Researchers used maps to estimate how many jaguars (Panthera onca) were in burned areas from August 2016 to December 2019. Assuming all jaguars in the burned areas were either displaced or killed by flames, researchers estimated 1,422 were negatively affected. “The scale of loss for jaguars alone with at least 300 individuals killed or displaced each year, is not a norm we can accept,” said study co-author Fernando Tortato, a conservation scientist with Panthera, the global cat conservation organization, in a release.

Read the study at Conservation Science and Practice.