October's Evenings with Audubon features a slightly different organism than what we're used to: the jaguar! Jaguars are a near-threatened species native to Central and South America, and rely on rainforest habitat for food and shelter. We'll learn about the various birds and mammals that share this ecosystem with the jaguar, including tapirs, peccaries, sloths, monkeys, toucans, eagles, and ospreys, as well as the threats to their habitat in Panama -- specifically, a critically important area in the Boqueron district.

The land in question is located in the Boqueron Valley, a threatened wildlife corridor in northern Panama. The land faces threats from farmers clearing the rainforest for agriculture and poachers trying to earn a living from harvesting the local wildlife. If the land is not protected, the threatened area will gradually extend further into the valley until it meets the cleared area north of the forest. That would mean a corridor of destroyed rainforest extending from the Pacific to the Atlantic and it would cut in half one of the jaguar’s last habitats! 

Alvaro Perez Cardenas, co-founder of Greenrainforest, a Panamanian non-profit focused on protecting critical wildlife habitat in Panama, will share what his organization is doing to protect the jaguars and larger rainforest ecosystem in this area.

 

About the Presenter

Alvaro Perez Cardenas is a Panamanian nature guide, explorer and the co-founder of Greenrainforest, an organization dedicated to preserving the Boqueron Valley, the last remaining link between the rainforests of eastern Panama and those of the west.  He will talk about the natural history of Panama and conservation strategies for saving Boqueron.  He will be joined through Skype by Ricardo Moreno. Ricardo is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who is renowned for his jaguar research.

Cover photo by Rachel, Flickr Creative Commons