Jaguar: Study reports affection of mother and cub in captivity – 04/25/2023 – Environment

One of the biggest challenges for the conservation of large endangered animals is to replicate the animal’s living conditions in captivity. This barrier is considered the main one that prevents the reproduction of animals under care.

In the case of big cats, such as the jaguar, erratic, stereotyped (repetitive) or aggressive behaviors towards other individuals of the same species tend to limit reproductive success. Until now.

Researchers from USP (University of São Paulo), Ribeirão Preto campus, Ufscar (Federal University of São Carlos), UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and Associação Mata Ciliar, in Jundiaí (SP), were able to register for the first time a well -successful reproduction of a pair of jaguars and parental care of the mother with the cubs.

The article describing the case was published last month in the specialized journal Theriogenology Wild.

The study took place at Associação Mata Ciliar, where the two jaguars had been since 2015, when they were taken after being rescued by IBAMA agents.

Tabatinga, the female, was taken to Associação Mata Ciliar headquarters on October 15, 2015 at seven months of age. She was found alone in the city of Tabatinga (in Amazonas, hence her name), at the age of two months, by Ibama agents and remained for about five months at the Wild Animal Screening Center (Cetas) in Manaus.

Codajás, a healthy male, arrived at the institute in Jundiaí on the same day as Tabatinga, aged eight months. He was apprehended by Ibama, still a puppy, from a home after the family killed his mother and siblings.

Chemistry rolled between the two and, with a few weeks of living together and estrous cycles later (as is the scientific name of heat), Tabatinga’s pregnancy was confirmed. The pups, one male and one female, were born in 2018, and Tabatinga and the pups were monitored in the pre- and postpartum period, during the first months of life, using infrared cameras (night vision) hidden in the enclosure.

To avoid conflicts and reduce the female’s stress, Tabatinga and Codajás were separated a few weeks before giving birth.

The main finding of the study was to be able to confirm and register for the first time some behaviors that involve parental care of the jaguar with the cubs in captivity.

The image records produced more than ten hours of film, and the researchers divided them into three phases to perform the behavior analysis: phase 1, pre-delivery and shortly after delivery; phase 2, when the female was placed in isolation in a darker area that mimicked a burrow; and the third and final phase, when the female and offspring had free access to the rest of the enclosure.

In the first phase, Tabatinga’s stress level was still high, so the frequency of stereotyped behaviors was also high (more than 50%). In phases 2 and 3, however, behaviors of affection (42% and 15%), exploration (30% and 33%) and maintenance (or care; 15% and 14%) of the puppies, with licking and playing, were recorded.

“The only point that is perhaps even more difficult to decipher is that we did not effectively compare with what is expected in nature precisely because this information is missing. Based on the recordings, we can say whether Tabatinga’s behavior is becoming more or less healthy, compared with stereotyped behavior, and we saw that it is”, says biologist Vinicius Marques Lopez, one of the authors of the study.

In addition, natural reproduction was successful, something extremely rare for animals in captivity — the other cases of jaguar reproduction in controlled environments occurred through artificial insemination. Confinement in these species is a serious problem, since jaguars are solitary and territorial animals, with areas covering tens of square kilometers.

According to Lopez, the study provides indications of tools and environmental enrichment that other zoos and research institutes can replicate.

“Since there are many examples of jaguar cubs in captivity resulting, in general, from artificial insemination, our research can help in trying to recreate this environment to reduce less healthy behaviors”, he says.

“We used some elements to create a burrow-like environment for the mother, and that helped her to reduce stereotyped behaviors and increase affection behaviors, for example. We imagine that this is during this natural period with the calf in that she records the behaviors of licking, grooming, bringing back to the nest, etc.”, he completes.

Another hypothesis raised by the research, and which for the first time brings evidence of results, is whether the necessary contact of cats with their parents to learn parental care behaviors occurs in the first two months of life, since it was during this period that both Tabatinga and Codajás were separated from their respective families.

“Behavior in captivity often shows that animals live in a constant state of stress, exhibiting repetitive and functionless behaviors, with an unnatural and unhealthy state of mind for the animal. Strategies for environmental enrichment and ways to make enclosures the most as possible aid in well-being, and may help in the reproduction of endangered species”, says UFMG researcher Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira, also an author of the study.

The importance of maintaining captivity in which jaguars can reproduce can mean a crucial step towards the preservation of the species, reinforce experts.

The male cub of Tabatinga, the only survivor of the couple, is an important reproducer in other zoos and can also help pass on parental care from the mother to her offspring, they also point out.