The
Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize is part
of a nature reserve and national park system that protects
more than half a million acres of tropical forest.
Dr. Alan Rabinowitz of the Wildlife Conservation Society
began work to study and protect jaguars there in the
mid-1980s, and today Drs. Scott Silver, Linde Ostro
and their team continue to expand that program.
Using
camera "traps" equipped with an infrared sensor
to photograph animals as they pass, information on the
movements, identification and activity of jaguars can
be recorded without physically capturing the animals.
Of
course, other warmblooded animals activate the cameras
as well. Much can also be learned about the forest ecosystem
through these "accidental captures."
