A male jaguar has made an unprecedented trek, skirting 2100 kilometres of the southern edge of the Amazon rainforest. The journey 鈥� which crossed highways, farms, ranches and other human-modified landscapes 鈥� expands our knowledge of what these big cats are capable of.
was about 60 to 100 kilometres, says at University College Dublin in Ireland. Knowing these animals are capable of travelling much longer distances reveals further challenges in protecting them. 鈥淚ndividuals that are travelling so far are more exposed to human-related risks like hunting or killing because of attacks on livestock,鈥� says Morant.
He and his colleagues have been tracking jaguars in Brazil via GPS collars as part of a larger ongoing project that started in 1999. The researchers wanted to better understand how jaguars use their environments along the Araguaia river, a potential wildlife corridor connecting the Cerrado grasslands with the Amazon.
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They captured the male, dubbed Gaspar, as part of this work, fitting him with a collar on 11 November 2024. The 8-year-old jaguar then spent some time in his established range, about 700 square kilometres along the Araguaia river, before setting out on a massive southward trek, skirting the border of the Amazon to inland Cerrado.
The researchers recorded that Gaspar travelled 2122 kilometres, until his collar stopped transmitting locations in late Novemeber 2025, but that is as the crow flies. The actual distance is probably much more, says Morant.
While Gaspar mostly stuck to forested areas, he also crossed through heavily modified human landscapes, such as farms, ranches and roads. Dispersals, albeit shorter ones, are common in individuals aged 1 to 3 years old that are looking to establish a new territory, but it is unclear why an older adult like Gaspar made this move. He might have been searching for better food resources, mating opportunities or a better habitat in general, says Morant.
鈥淏eyond the extraordinary distance聽travelled, I find [it] especially intriguing that he apparently聽did not establish a territory despite more than a year of continuous聽
movement through areas that were, at least in part, potentially聽suitable for jaguars,鈥� says Jose Garcia Herrera at the Spanish National Research Council.
The findings also reveal an additional challenge in protecting such wide-ranging cats. In these human-modified areas, jaguars face threats from poaching, as ranchers often kill them to protect livestock. 鈥淢aybe we need to rethink how protected areas are framed and organised,鈥� says Morant.
Gaspar鈥檚 fate is now uncertain. He may have been shot or poisoned, or the collar may have just stopped working, says Morant, which could mean Gaspar is still traversing the Brazilian landscape.
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