A female jaguar has been successfully released into the Bolivian rainforest, marking a major milestone as the country struggles with critical population declines due to heavy poaching.
The feline emerged from a steel cage on a sandy riverbed before disappearing into the undergrowth of the national park, as reported by The Guardian.
The jaguar, named Yaguara, had been in captivity since August 2024 after being orphaned as an eight-month-old cub during the worst recorded wildfire season in Bolivia.
As the fires burned over 10% of the country, authorities transferred the cub to veterinarians from Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY), a wild-animal rescue center.
The staff raised Yaguara for nearly two years in Ambue Ari, a 1,000-hectare jungle reserve surrounded by ranchland that hosts various rescued species.
Before the team released Yaguara into the 1.5-million-hectare Noel Kempff Mercado national park on June 5, no captive jaguar had ever been successfully rehabilitated for release in Bolivia.
Conservation Milestone
"Yaguara has changed the history of jaguar conservation in this country," says Iván Márquez, the biologist overseeing post-release monitoring.
The species is considered near-threatened globally by the WWF but faces vulnerable status in Bolivia, with ongoing discussions to reclassify it as endangered.
Poachers kill an average of 61 jaguars annually in Bolivia to supply the Chinese market with teeth and body parts, making it the highest poaching rate globally.
Wildfires intentionally lit for agriculture and cattle ranching have also driven severe habitat loss, pushing Bolivia to the second-highest level of deforestation globally in 2024.
Rehabilitating captive jaguars remains extremely rare because many individuals become too accustomed to humans or lack necessary wild survival skills.
For instance, a male jaguar named Kusiy will live out his life in the Ambue Ari reserve because he was kept as a pet and cannot hunt.
To prepare Yaguara, CIWY and conservation experts established a special committee to design strict rehabilitation protocols for the first-time release.
Staff constructed a 10,000-square-meter enclosure mimicking national park conditions with a pool to help her hone natural instincts, costing approximately $80,000.
Camera traps monitored her behavior as natural prey entered the enclosure, allowing her to hunt independently alongside a diet supplemented by roadkill.
"Her behavior was always in line with that of a wild jaguar," says Márquez.
Vets noted positive signs when camera traps recorded over 600 direct interactions between Yaguara and a wild male jaguar outside her enclosure.
Once cleared, the team transported Yaguara via a small airplane and a boat to the national park, where she was released wearing a satellite tracking collar.
The total cost of the release reached about $120,000, leading some conservationists to question if resources would be better spent on alternative protection measures.
"Funding more in situ conservation activities, improving training of park rangers, studying wild populations with camera traps … many of these measures could deliver better results and more knowledge than raising a jaguar and then releasing it to see if it survives," says Damián Rumiz, a wildlife researcher.
However, CIWY argues the project enhances genetic diversity, provides valuable scientific data, and offers an ethical second chance to animals displaced from their habitats.
"We've laid the groundwork for many future [releases]," says Márquez. "Because, sadly, this is likely to be the first of many."
