MOUNTAINS OF THE JAGUAR

Nestled in the Maya Mountains like a cornucopia cradling the fruit of Gods sweet creations, the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (CBWS) shelters the exotic and common flora and fauna of Belize; there, the jaguar reigns.

By Alex Asher / Photos by Darrel Jones

"I drove my little Honda further and further into the basin until I crested a rise at the top of a long steep hill. Just as I came over the top, a jaguar stepped out from the forest into my path. He turned his head and looked at me as if I were just another in a long line of inexplicable intrusions and then continued on his way, disappearing into the forest on the opposite side."

    Thus began Alan Rabinowitz' love affair with Belize and its jaguars, an enchantment that led the young naturalist to spend two years studying the largest feline in the Americas, and which ultimately led to the creation of the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (CBWS) for the protection of the jaguar. Today the CBWS, located in this small Central American country bordered by Guatemala and Honduras, has grown beyond its mandate to protect the jaguar to include the conservation and study of every facet of plant and animal life in the basin; even deadwood.

    The Cockscomb Basin is an uncommon geological space whose lower part was formed by a granite surge 200 million years ago: a 36 by 14 kilometer, depression in the Maya Mountains occupying more than 500 square kilometers. It was dubbed the Cockscomb for the mountains' resemblance to a rooster's comb. The zone has two separate basins: the western side contains the Swasey watershed, and South Stann Creek Basin is in the east. With elevations ranging from the tallest point in Belize at Victoria's Peak (1,120 meters), to a low of 50 meters above sea level, the preserve contains an ideal topographical range for preserving low and high altitude flora and fauna.

    Days spent in the Cockscomb provide a magical atmosphere with a broad range of color and sound. Narrow dirt access roads walled by thick vegetation form flight tunnels for birds that dart up and across overhead. The rivers are also natural pathways, making riverbanks front-row seats for bird watching. Large groups of different species coexist, often led by a black-faced grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus), followed by tanagers (Tanagras), woodcreepers and warbblers. Riverbanks come alive with their vocalizations as the rays of the morning sun cast shadows in the canopy. At midday, when the intense tropical heat drives creatures to rest in the cool shadows, the woods are silent. And at nightfall the jungle re-awakens to a repeat performance of an avian chorus inspired by the dissipating warmth.

    The impetus for the creation of the worlds largest jaguar preserve was a study undertaken on behalf of the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society, WCS). It was prompted by a farmer's fear of becoming a meal for one of the jaguars he kept bumping into in his fields. Concerned that the normally shy cats had become noticeably numerous, James Hyde, Permanent Secretary for the Minister of Natural Resources in Belize in the early 1980's, asked the Belize Audubon Society if they could commission a jaguar study. In 1981 the international division of the New York Zoological Society contacted the Belize Audubon Society (BAS) and offered to commission the research, for which Dr. Alan Rabinowitz was eventually engaged by WCS director George Shaller.

    Data from initial surveys looked good. Thanks to the region's well preserved forests, the jaguar was thriving throughout Belize. Timber, the original gold in the country's hills, had been selectively harvested. The primary wood export from the former British Honduras was mahogany, which lumber companies culled from the forests, leaving neighboring wood untouched. While other countries nearby lost jungle habitat to population growth—and its accompanying demand to clear-cut woodland for more grazing pasture and crop land—Belize experienced centuries of selective logging that left areas like the Cockscomb basin full of first growth forests.

    Despite healthy forests and jaguar populations in other areas, Rabinowitz chose the Cockscomb for its jaguar density, its varied topography and for the enveloping Maya Mountains that form the basin. Over the course of two years, Rabinowitz caught jaguars in steel cages baited with pigs (now on display at the park), studied them and tagged them with radio collars. Using a positioning system, he kept track of their movements to determine their range and habits.

    Rabinowitz research showed that unlike their diurnal relatives in Brazil, the Belizean jaguars hunt at night, but that like their cousins they maintain a very large range. Male jaguars roam over a 25 to 38-square-kilometer territory, and females maintain half that range—though neither is exclusive—with a substantial territorial overlap. This information proved invaluable in determining how much park preserve needed to be set aside to protect a given number of jaguars.

    Rabinowitz also concluded that the jaguar is not a threat to humans, and poses little threat to livestock. Studying jaguar feces he found that their favorite meal was the abundant armadillo (53%), followed by red brocket deer (Mazama Rufa), peccary, agouti and opossum. The occasional livestock kill was almost always done by pre-adult males and enfeebled jaguars in search of an easy meal. Still, livestock left alone in the forest quickly became jaguar food, indicating that what they avoided were large, open areas.

    Armed with his studies, Rabinowitz enlisted BAS members and lobbied the Belizean government to create a jaguar preserve in the Cockscomb Basin. In 1985 the World Wildlife Fund gave its first grant to the CBWS. The initial result was a moratorium on any hunting in the basin, though timber concessions were still honored. This partial victory still left the feline's general habitat vulnerable.

    Few ancient sites on the scale of nearby Caracol—the ancient Maya city that once conquered part of the Peten region in what is presently northern Guatemala—have been found in the sanctuary. It is likely that heavy forestation covers many lost cities and temples. The few Maya digs, like the Pierce Ruins site, are added attractions for tourists to the Cockscomb.

    Some very contemporary Maya villages like Quam Bay, now site of a CBWS visitors center, had to be relocated when the park was created. At first some of the transferred people were concerned about giving up their traditional milpa (corn) farming, and dubious about the ability of the new park to provide them with an income. Eventually they were won over by BAS policies like hiring only local Maya to work as trail guides and park managers. In 1985 all of the villages were consolidated into the Maya Center, Since then government has built a community center, a school, a soccer field, streets, a clinic, a water system, electricity and telephones.

    Still, it was difficult to explain the abstract concept of conservation to the people who would have to move their homes to accomplish it. Ernesto Saqui, CBWS park director and himself a member of a Cockscomb Basin village, wrote about the gradual way in which he won the locals over.

    "The people felt that one man came and took away everything. The transition took three years. How did it happen? First, a local person has to be in charge. No matter how much a foreigner is liked, they will always be foreign. I understand the way the villagers think. I am one of them. The fear they feel, I feel. Their concerns are my concerns, too.

    "The second ingredient is the community approach. I brought all the Village Council leaders—the ones who ask the question—up to the Sanctuary, along with the officials from the Forest Department and the BAS. The meeting did not really change any minds, but it started them thinking. Gradually, Maya Center villagers began to see the advantages of the sanctuary for them."

    Enlisting international support for the preserve proved to be much easier. The United States Peace Corps joined the effort right away, sending volunteer Daniel Taylor, a specialist in wildlife management. Taylor worked to turn the Basin into a park, building a bunkhouse, cooking and bathroom facilities, and he cut hiking trails in the woods. By 1987 Ernest Saqui, the park's first (and present) director was hired, and the CBWS was prepared to be open to the public.

    At first the land included was barely enough to conserve the territory of one jaguar. The BAS and other agencies continued lobbying to expand the sanctuary, until four and a half years after its creation, in November, 1990, most of the basin was designated a jaguar sanctuary. The grant increased protected land 25 fold, providing greater opportunities for extensive wildlife study and conservation projects.

    In 1991 the BAS invited the Wildlife Conservation Society to study the possible reintroduction of howler monkeys, locally knows as "baboons," to the basin. Although it seems like a simple catch and release task, the reality of species transplantation is quite complex. Details of their diet must be known, they have to be matched to a similar habitation in the forest canopy, unfamiliar predators have to be taken into account, and so does their range and the size and makeup of their group.

    The Black Howler Monkey had once been so numerous in the Cockscomb that its tremendous dusk and dawn calls were heard throughout the basin. Listed as "threatened" by many nations, the Cockscomb howler monkey population was destroyed by yellow fever in the 1950's and habitat devastation wrought by Hurricane Hattie in 1961.

    Between May of 1992 and May of 1994, the CBWS oversaw a massive re-introduction of this vociferous primate. Tranquilizing monkeys with a dart gun and catching them in nets, the team took blood samples, weighed them and fitted them with radio transceivers. All but one control group, which was re-released as a control group, were placed in acclimation cages for one to three days before being released. A total of 62 animals were moved from 1992 to 1994, and a population count undertaken in 1995 showed their population to be as high as 75 primates, with many groups sporting healthy babies and juveniles. Today the howlers' roar once again joins that of the jaguar in the Cockscomb's cacophony.

    The quick success of the Cockscomb has inspired the Belizean government to expand the park's range when possible. The most recent growth of the CBWS was in 1995, when another 16,000 hectares of the former Bladen Branch Nature Preserve was added. Presently the sanctuary is a contiguous protected area of almost 100,000 acres, which includes the entirety of the Cockscomb Basin.

    Today the CBWS has become more than a jaguar sanctuary. To protect the jaguar it is necessary to protect the armadillo, peccary and other species it eats, and to protect the armadillo and peccary it is necessary to protect the plant-life they consume; many of which may have medicinal value that has yet to be studied. In an era when conservationists often fight environmental battles, frequently as outsiders, whose interests clash with the very real needs of natives who depend on the forest for daily survival, the success of a park like the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is a cause for celebration.

    Writing in the "Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary," Rabinowitz marveled at the sanctuary's rapid success: "When I initiated efforts to protect the Cockscomb Basin, it was nor for jaguars alone that I labored. The truth is that I never expected such a change in thinking to occur as quickly as it has. My admiration goes out to the local Maya communities around the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary and to the Belizean people as a whole for their foresight and commitment."

Special thanks to authors of the "The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary," edited by Emmons, et al.