Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from the southwestern U.S. to Argentina and is the Western Hemisphere\u2019s largest cat. Today it\u2019s locally extinct or imperiled across much of its former territory, including the Atlantic Forest biome where it\u2019s critically endangered.<\/p>\n
In this region, the study notes, some 85\u202f% of jaguar habitat is gone and only small fragments remain within what\u2019s considered one of the world\u2019s most degraded tropical forests. As a result, jaguars have declined dramatically here, especially over the past two decades.<\/p>\n
The new study highlights one reason why: There\u2019s not much for them to eat. Medium and large prey have diminished greatly, including white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari), collared peccaries (Dicotyles tajacu), brocket deer (Mazama spp.) and tapirs (Tapirus terrestris).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are facing a silent extinction of prey species in the Atlantic Forest,\u201d says study lead author Katia Ferraz, a wildlife biologist at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo. \u201cWe talk a lot about jaguar extinction, but we talk little about the extinction of peccaries and deer, for example, that are important prey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferraz and her colleagues assessed jaguar prey species in nine protected areas in the Atlantic Forest. To do so, they carried out the most extensive camera-trap survey ever conducted in this biome. They found the highest abundance of prey species in the so-called Green Corridor area straddling the Brazil-Argentina border, an area with a smaller human presence and the highest numbers of jaguar. By comparison, coastal Atlantic Forest areas had little prey and few \u2014 or no \u2014 jaguars.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first estimate of its kind for the Atlantic Forest and the protected areas that span the best remaining fragments of the biome, Ferraz says. She calls the absence of wildlife \u201calarming.\u201d Illegal hunting is likely the main cause of dwindling prey.<\/p>\n
![\"Jaguars](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Image_5.png\")
Jaguars are a single species across their entire range, from Mexico to Argentina, but their habitat is highly fragmented and some populations, like those in Brazil\u2019s Atlantic Forest, are in danger of disappearing. Image by Sharon Guynup.
\nEmpty forests<\/p>\n
Fewer than 300 jaguars remain<\/a> in the Atlantic Forest biome, a fragmented corridor running along Brazil\u2019s Atlantic coast, according to current estimates. Those populations are scattered. The largest is in the Green Corridor, about 100<\/a> cats; other populations are smaller, numbering in the 20s or even less. This leads to inbreeding and imperils their ultimate survival.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a population of 20 individuals, the viability in the long term is practically zero unless we do something,\u201d said study co-author Adriano Chiarello, a biologist at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n In the Atlantic Forest, deer and peccaries make up a large percentage of the jaguar\u2019s diet. These same species are also targeted by hunters for bushmeat and local trade, Chiarello said.<\/p>\n In recent surveys, researchers found low numbers of white-lipped peccaries, deer and other key prey species in Atlantic Forest protected areas. Video courtesy of Katia Ferranz.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout a healthy natural prey base, jaguars can turn to feeding on domestic animals like livestock \u2014 increasing conflict and direct retaliation from humans, thereby increasing the chances for local extinction of jaguars,\u201d said Allison Devlin, who directs the jaguar program at wild cat conservation nonprofit Panthera<\/a>, who wasn\u2019t involved in this research.<\/p>\n Declining prey could also limit natural dispersal of these cats, which must strike out and find their own territory when they leave their mother at 18 months to 2 years of age. Without adequate food, there\u2019s little chance that jaguars will recolonize forest fragments, regardless of whether they\u2019re connected, the authors say. Even in areas with a higher abundance of prey, such as Brazil\u2019s Serra do Mar mountains, the prospect of jaguar presence is low because connectivity is limited.<\/p>\n \u201cThis study highlights a critical but often overlooked driver of top predator decline: the loss of their food due to poaching,\u201d said Mauro Galetti, a professor at S\u00e3o Paulo State University, who wasn\u2019t involved in the paper. \u201cMost of Atlantic Forests are effectively \u2018empty,\u2019 lacking the medium- and large-bodied prey for jaguars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWithout sufficient prey biomass, jaguars cannot persist, regardless of habitat protection,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is a super important and needed paper to call attention to the protection of the whole ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n Camera trap film of a jaguar and its cub in the Atlantic Forest. Video courtesy of Katia Ferranz.<\/p>\n Protecting prey, improving the landscape<\/p>\n These findings underline the need for a landscape-level conservation approach that moves beyond just conserving the big cat but incorporates broader efforts necessary to protect a large, wide-ranging predator like the jaguar.<\/p>\n That means restoring connectivity, particularly along rivers, and protecting prey \u2014 notably deer and peccaries \u2014 by reducing hunting pressure. That must include community engagement with people living near protected areas \u00a0as well as support for alternative livelihoods, Ferraz said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can protect the jaguar in a larger landscape, this means this larger landscape is a much better, healthier \u2026 landscape [ecologically speaking],\u201d Chiarello said. That should include buy-in from the agricultural sector to improve lands set aside under Brazil\u2019s Forest Code, he added. \u201cIf we don\u2019t improve the current quality of the protected areas, this species will not survive.\u201d<\/p>\n Increasing prey numbers in these remaining forests is crucial, which means tackling hunting may also require restoring prey where it\u2019s absent, either by reconnecting these lands or by translocating animals from elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we give jaguars the space and resources they need to survive, they can persist,\u201d Devlin said. She pointed to an example in Honduras, where conservationists successfully reintroduced<\/a> collared peccaries to Jeanette Kawas National Park after they were hunted out.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Ferraz said, their paper highlights the fact that both predator and prey must be protected to maintain balance within the fragile Atlantic Forest ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout prey, there are no jaguars,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t stop this process now, we will lose the jaguar, as well as several other terrestrial mammals in the Atlantic Forest.\u201d<\/p>\n Banner image: Lack of prey in Atlantic Forest protected areas could drive local extinctions of jaguars, a recent study warns. Image by Gregory Slobirdr Smith via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>).<\/p>\n Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project<\/a><\/p>\n Citation:<\/p>\n Ferraz, K. M., Paolino, R. M., Fusco-Costa, R., Sampaio, R., Almeida, A. B., Bogoni, J. A., \u2026 Chiarello, A. G. (2026). The loss of prey base may drive the jaguar (Panthera onca) toward extinction in the Atlantic Forest of South America. Global Ecology and Conservation, 66, e04084. doi:10.1016\/j.gecco.2026.e04084<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Yara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Image_4.png\")
Yara Barros, a researcher with the non-profit Projeto On\u00e7as do Igua\u00e7u, (left), and a colleague set up a camera trap. This study showed that where prey is abundant, jaguars persist, and where prey is scarce, jaguars decline or disappear. Image courtesy of Projeto On\u00e7as do Igua\u00e7u.<\/p>\n
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