In Summer of 2012 my wife and I had the great privilege of joining Instituto Onça-Pintada (Jaguar Conservation Fund) at their Jaguar sanctuary in Emas National Park in Goiás, Brazil via the EarthWatch Institute.
The mission of the Jaguar Conservation Fund is “To promote the conservation of the jaguar, its natural prey and habitat throughout the species’ geographical range, as well as its peaceful coexistence with man, through research and conservation strategies”. Our volunteer work was focused on the first attempt to release a Jaguar that was raised in captivity back into the wild. The work of the amazing people at JCF and the story of the release of the Jaguars was subsequently the subject of a BBC documentary (video below).
Our volunteer efforts came at the end of years of work at the final stages before release. We focused on many tasks, but in particular we helped build the release enclosure.
The idea behind the release enclosure is to transfer the Jaguars from the sanctuary to the release site and allow them to acclimate for a few days prior to setting them free.
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