The recent killing of a jaguar by hunters increases the species’ risk of extinction in Argentina’s Gran Chaco landscape, where no more than 10 of the big cats are thought remain.
Images of this particular jaguar were captured by camera trap twice this year as it traveled through a biological corridor; the next time it was photographed was on social media, where hunters posed with its carcass and its pelt.
A tradition of hunting, lack of public awareness, persistent deforestation, and absence of female jaguars — there’s only one, recently rewilded into the area — are the biggest obstacles to the jaguar’s survival in the Argentine Gran Chaco.