World Wildlife Fund

© WWF / Paloma Alcazar

Deep in the heart of the Amazon roam jaguars, pumas and other creatures of the jungle. Rodrigo Donadi of WWF’s AREAS Amazonia project has been tracking them for almost two years. He’s felt the bone-rattling sound of a jaguar’s roar and seen herds of wild pigs stampeding through the lush rain forest. Join him in the Amazon as he comes face to face with the jaguar – king of the jungle.

Part 1: A Dream Come True | Part 2: River Ride | Part 3: Forest Friends | Part 4: Platforms and Peccaries | Part 5: Tigers in the Amazon? | Part 6: A Trapper's Call | Part 7: Success on the First Try! | Part 8: Face to Face with a King | Part 9: Darting Tankar | Part 10: Tracking in the Jungle | Part 11:
Ghost of the Amazon | Part 12: Afterthoughts

We place trap sites along the natural trails of these animals, and add a little salt and brazil nut (a local forest food) to entice them to come below our nets.
© WWF / AREAS_Amazonia

My first capture is with the white lipped peccary. Of all the wild pig species, these are the only ones that travel in herds, which can be of up to 200 individuals. They play an important role in soil turning and seed dispersal and predation as well as being one of the principal foods for pumas and jaguars.

We capture peccaries from platforms about 15 feet off the ground, from where we can release a drop net once the animals are underneath. We often sit up there all day long – sometimes for days at a time – dealing with ants, mosquitoes, sweat bees and any other animal or insect that wants to come pay us a visit. Then suddenly the call comes through on our handheld radios that there is a capture and the excitement sets; we all climb down and run over to the capture site as fast as possible.

Once there, we select two or three healthy adults. The vet estimates their weight and drug dosages and we immobilize the head and body so the sedative can be injected. This is the most dangerous part because peccaries have large, sharp tusks and extremely strong jaw muscles that they use to break open the rock-hard palm seeds. We wait a few minutes until the anesthesia takes effect and then measure, weigh, take biological samples and fit the animal with a radio or GPS collar. This method of capture is very efficient since it allows us to be quite selective about the individuals that we capture avoiding the young or the pregnant females. The whole process takes a little over an hour and soon the animal is back with his group and we are able to follow his movements across the forest.