INTRODUCTION

The jaguar is the largest cat in the western hemisphere and one of the most powerful and recurring motifs of Central and South American cultures, past and present (Saunders 1989, 1991). The jaguar icon symbolized royalty and was thought to protect people against all other malevolent forces (Benson 1998; Saunders 1991). Still, the living jaguar, while considered a somewhat mystical being, was always feared and hunted as a dangerous predator.

However, unlike the other great cats, there have been no verified records of man-eating jaguars, and relatively few records of jaguars killing people. Hunters describe the jaguar as elusive and secretive, stating that, when stalked, it often tries to escape rather than fight (Singer 1916; Duguid 1932). Some hunters even captured jaguars without fear of injury by chasing and lassoing them (Fawcett 1954).

The real conflicts between humans and jaguars are relatively recent starting in the mid sixteenth century with the introduction of domestic livestock to the New World after European colonization (Arnold 1968). In the South American Pantanal, where the main economic activity is cattle production, the ranching industry and the cowboy culture, considered long-held and traditional, is in fact only 250 years old (Wilcox 1992; Dolabella 2000). As contact between jaguars and cattle increased, so did the problem of jaguars killing cattle. Now with nearly 4 million cattle in the Pantanal, the region has the largest ungulate biomass in the New World, and is considered one of the hotspots of jaguar–livestock conflict.