Oct 3, 20202 min read

Jaguar Community Science

Community science, or citizen science, is an aspect of hands-on research that non-scientists can participate in. For this website we like to use the term community science because we believe that all people are welcomed to participate and we do not want to exclude anyone or cause fear within those who may not be a citizen of the country doing the research. Community science can be viewing camera trap images or being out in the field measuring animal burrows or anything in between.

Again, citizen science is community science, just a different name.

Kaminando is an organization that takes pride in working with the community to develop sustainable livelihoods while providing educational outreach to promote human-wildlife coexistence (Kaminando Homa, 2020). They also want to engage residents and students to participate in conservation challenges that are threatening Panama’s flagship species, the jaguar (Kaminando Home, 2020). Across the jaguar range the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species jaguars are listed as near threatened, but in Panama it is listed as threatened (IUCN Jaguar, 2020; Kaminando Jaguar Project, 2020).

The jaguar project with Kaminando focuses on an area that includes the Mamoni Valley Preserve (MVP), the Guna Yala territory and the Chagres National Park in Panama (Kaminando Jaguar Project, 2020). They are studying jaguar movement through the narrowest stretch of the Isthmus of Panama, also known as the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (Kaminando Jaguar Project, 2020). They are curious to know how the landscape elements influence the occupation and dispersal of jaguars in the area (Kaminando Jaguar Project, 2020). In addition, they are determining the jaguar density across the area and determining if the area has ample prey populations for the jaguar (Kaminando Jaguar Project, 2020).

YOU can assist them with their jaguar project! Kaminando is welcoming of visitors who want to get involved by spending time in nature and participating in science (Kaminando An Opportunity, 2020). You will hike in the same area where other felines, like the jaguar, hiked through and you will help Kaminando by checking camera traps and discovering which felines, and other wildlife, have roamed the area (Kaminando An Opportunity, 2020). This is your chance to take a vacation, to the cloud forest, where you can all make a difference while leaving lasting impacts on communities and supporting wildlife (Kaminando Jaguar Tour, 2019). Panama is a biodiversity hotspot and has one of the most complex ecosystems on earth (Kaminando Jaguar Tour, 2019).