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A group of researchers wanted to understand how different conservation<\/a> methods affect wildlife. <\/p>\n Do animals do better in areas where people are completely banned? Or can managed forests, where humans live, log trees, and hunt, still support wildlife?<\/p>\n To find out, the team set up more than 1,000 camera traps across about 580 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) of rainforest covering both strictly protected parks and a forest managed by a local community called Uaxact\u00fan. <\/p>\n The cameras were placed near waterholes, roads, and deep forest paths during two dry seasons.<\/p>\n Thousands of images came back, capturing 26 species of medium-to-large mammals<\/a> and birds<\/a>. Some of the animals were shy, while others were not. <\/p>\n Some animals, like jaguars and ocelots, seemed to own the night. One photo even caught a jaguar hunting an ocelot \u2013 something that had never been documented before.<\/p>\n A forest shared by humans and wildlife<\/p>\n When researchers looked at the photos, something stood out. The Uaxact\u00fan community forest \u2013 where residents log timber, hunt for food, and gather forest products \u2013 had nearly the same levels of animal diversity as the protected national park and wildlife preserve next door.<\/p>\n That\u2019s rare. The Uaxact\u00fan community follows strict rules and holds a Forest Stewardship Council certification. That means their timber practices meet international standards for sustainability. <\/p>\n There is no clearing of huge patches or overhunting. The community has shown that it\u2019s possible to keep a forest alive while still using it.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not perfect. Some animals keep their distance from humans. Vulnerable species like Baird\u2019s tapirs, white-lipped peccaries, and great curassows stayed away from areas with high human traffic. They preferred the deeper, quieter parts of the forest.<\/p>\n Losing animals means losing the forest<\/p>\n On the flip side, smaller animals and even ocelots were sometimes more common closer to people \u2013 likely because they had fewer predators or competitors nearby.<\/p>\n Keeping animals in the forest isn\u2019t just about nature watching. Large mammals like tapirs<\/a> and peccaries play a big role in keeping the ecosystem healthy. <\/p>\n They help plants spread seeds, balance species, and even help forests store more carbon. That affects climate stability worldwide. When forests lose their animals, the whole system starts to break down.<\/p>\n A win for conservation \u2013 and community<\/p>\n The Uaxactun community didn\u2019t just protect wildlife<\/a> by accident. Their success is built on history, cooperation, and hard work. They have strong traditions tied to the forest, and they\u2019ve built a management group that keeps outside threats \u2013 like cattle ranchers and illegal loggers \u2013 out.<\/p>\n They\u2019re also part of the Association of Forest Communities of Pet\u00e9n, which gives them a stronger voice in politics and better access to government support.<\/p>\n Their commitment paid off. Early findings from this research helped them renew their forest concession, showing that they can balance conservation with everyday life.<\/p>\n \u201cUaxactun shows that when local people have the resources, the rights, and the will, community-based forest management can sustain robust populations of wildlife,\u201d said Roan McNab, who was the Guatemala program director for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the time of the study.<\/p>\n Seeing what satellites can\u2019t<\/p>\n You can\u2019t spot a jaguar<\/a> from space. You can\u2019t see a forest\u2019s heart \u2013 or hear its silence \u2013 with satellite images. That\u2019s why the team behind the study insists on ground-level monitoring. Forests might look fine from above, but it\u2019s the life inside them that tells the truth.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal was to see how different conservation strategies, strict protection versus managed use, are really working for the wildlife that live there,\u201d said Daniel Thornton, associate professor at Washington State University<\/a> and senior author on the study.<\/p>\n The Uaxactun forest isn\u2019t just a patch of trees \u2013 it\u2019s a living, breathing example of what\u2019s possible when people are trusted to take care of their land, and do it right.<\/p>\n \u201cThese forests are beautiful, but also fragile,\u201d said Lucy Perera-Romero, the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cThe more we know about what\u2019s happening inside them, the better we can protect them for everyone, people and jaguars alike.\u201d<\/p>\n The full study was published in the journal Conservation Biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A forest can look alive from above and still be silent, with no footprints, calls, or creatures. Scientists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-227430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}