The mystery of the rare jaguar that lasts almost 10 years in RJ – 05/18/2023 – Environment

“Something surreal that I never thought I’d see”, thought the electronic security technician Tales Oliveira, 27 years old, when he saw a white dot moving between the stones in Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, on the morning of 30 March of this year.

Oliveira was near the window of his house, together with a friend, when he saw what he thought was a white puma, a very rare animal, walking in an area of ​​environmental protection.

“I decided to get some binoculars and we started observing,” says Tales, who grew up in the Petrópolis region and heard about jaguars living there since he was a little boy — but he had never seen one.

A few weeks later, another resident of the region also made records that he believed to be of the same animal.

Supposedly, it would be a puma with a rare genetic condition that leaves most of its coat white.

Almost ten years ago, an animal with these characteristics was seen for the first time in the Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Parnaso), in a region of the Atlantic Forest.

He was sighted three more times over the next few months, but he was never located again.

Recent records were evaluated by researchers, who pointed out that the images are not of the rare jaguar.

In the case of photographs taken by a resident, the jaguar was actually a cat.

In Tales’ video, however, it was not possible to confirm which animal it was, because the image was of low quality.

As a result, the current whereabouts of the extremely rare jaguar remain uncertain.

The White Puma

Leucism is the condition behind this puma’s white coat.

The first record of the animal — a male that was around 2 years old at the time — was made in July 2013 by camera traps in Parnaso.

Until then, there was no other confirmed case of this genetic characteristic among puma. This condition had already been identified in other felines, such as tigers and lions.

Leucism is characterized by the absence of melanin in the coat, which is completely clear because of this.

“Albinism, for example, is the complete loss of pigmentation in the animal, while leucism is the loss of pigmentation only in the coat. It is a very rare thing”, says biologist Lucas Gonçalves, who studies the subject.

The researcher from the Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Brasilia explains that leucism does not usually bring direct advantages or disadvantages.

But it is very likely that the animal has difficulty camouflaging itself in the landscape, says the biologist.

Gonçalves says that there was another suspicion of leucism in a puma decades ago, but the case was not confirmed because the images in the record were in black and white.

Gonçalves was the one who identified the unprecedented case of the white puma in Petrópolis.

In 2014, he was looking at the images of the camera traps that monitored the animals in Parnaso when he saw a puma that did not have the usual color of the species, which varies between shades of beige and brown.

The researcher warned those responsible for the images about the rarity of the animal. From then on, the jaguar with leucism gained attention and, in 2018, was described by scientists in the publication CAT News, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, in its acronym in English).

Five years ago, researchers wanted to install new cameras to monitor it and even considered looking for some way to do a genetic study. But the ideas did not go forward due to lack of resources.

The mystery of the rare jaguar

The four records of the puma with leucism were made between July and September 2013.

“There are other images of puma at night, but the cameras photograph in infrared, and this makes it difficult to identify the animal’s color, so we don’t know if it was sighted other times (after 2013)”, explains biologist Cecília Cronemberger , which coordinates the camera traps to study the region’s species.

Almost a decade later, researchers were alert when they learned of new possible records that would have been made by residents.

Still on the day that Tales Oliveira recorded his video, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) carried out searches with a drone to confirm whether it really was a puma.

“We also returned on the following days, in a sequence of days and at alternate times to catch the periods when the jaguars are more active, but unfortunately, we were unable to register the animal”, comments Victor Valente, head of the conservation units environment of the Fluminense mountains.

Tales’ video was analyzed by ICMBio specialists. They assessed that, if it really was a puma, it would probably be a normal colored animal.

“Initially, we even thought it could be (the rare jaguar), but since it was a dawn shoot, it was probably the sun hitting a rock and giving the impression that the jaguar was lighter than it really was, and that confused the residents”, explains Valente.

The researchers say that, although it is not common for pumas to be seen by residents, they inhabit the region of Petrópolis.

It is difficult to know exactly the size of the population of this type of jaguar, also known as puma or cougar, but there are studies that indicate that there are around 4,000 in Brazil — 1,000 in the Atlantic Forest alone.

ICMBio says in a note to BBC News Brasil that anyone who sees a jaguar should avoid taking pictures or approaching the animal.

“It is also not recommended to attack, chase or threaten, given that even large predators only attack when provoked or if they have young.”

The puma, found from Canada to the extreme south of the South American continent, is an almost endangered species. The expansion of agriculture and logging, in addition to the increase in fires, are some of the factors that lead to this.

Scholars believe there is a high possibility that the white puma will never be seen again.

They point out, for example, that the animal may already have died “considering the life cycle of a puma, which is 12 to 15 years”, says Valente.

“It will be almost impossible to record this animal again, as it is something rare. It may be that 50 or 100 years go by without another white puma appearing”, says biologist Lucas Gonçalves.

“But, because a white animal like him existed at some point, we know that this can appear again in this species”, adds Gonçalves.