It’s early evening in a jungle in Brazil. A small team of scientists floats in a boat in


the middle of a river. T ey’ve watched the riverbank for hours, but haven’t seen much. Suddenly, the hairs on the backs of their


necks prickle. T ey still don’t see anything, yet they know something is watching them. T en a big cat silently steps out from the


trees. It’s a jaguar. T e jaguar moves to the river, crouches, and slowly laps up water. When it’s done drinking, the cat liſt s its head


and looks at the scientists. As biologist Alan Rabinowitz locks eyes with the big cat, it makes a deep growl. T e sound sends chills down his spine. “She’s beautiful,” Rabinowitz whispers. T en the jaguar turns away. It flicks its tail and disappears into the jungle.


Protecting Jaguars Seeing the jaguar thrills Rabinowitz. Few


people ever get to see a jaguar in the wild. It’s not that jaguars are rare. As many as


15,000 of these big cats still roam in the wild. T at’s more than many other kinds of big cats. In comparison, only about 10,000 cheetahs and 3,200 tigers remain in the wild. Yet jaguars face many of the same threats as


other big cats. T ey’re losing habitat. Poachers kill jaguars for their beautiful spotted fur, and farmers shoot jaguars to protect their livestock. Rabinowitz wants to protect these big cats.


To do that, he’s had to become a jaguar expert. T at’s because little was known about them.


4 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER


Tracking Jaguars Rabinowitz has tracked jaguars for years to


learn about them and their habits. It’s been dangerous at times. He picked up parasites in the jungle that made him too ill to travel. Fortunately, he got better. His plane crashed in a storm. Luckily, he walked away from the crash with just a crushed nose. Tracking jaguars has been frustrating, too.


Rabinowitz can go months without seeing a single jaguar. T at’s because finding them isn’t easy. Unlike lions, jaguars don’t live in prides, or groups. Instead, these cats usually live alone, and they roam large territories.


Hard to Spot To find jaguars, Rabinowitz travels deep into


a jungle in South America. When he reaches a village, he asks the villagers if they’ve seen any jaguars. One villager describes a female jaguar with two cubs. Another points to a bend in the river. A big male jaguar hunts there, he says. T e stories confirm that Rabinowitz is in the


right place. T en it’s time to see if he can find a jaguar. He hikes through the jungle and wades through buggy swamps. Sweat trickles down his face as temperatures soar to 46°C. He knows a jaguar could walk by and he


would never see it. A jaguar’s spots and fur help it blend in to the jungle. It moves silently on big padded paws, and mostly at night. It doesn’t leave many traces as it goes. A jaguar will climb trees and wade through streams and rivers, so it’s oſt en hard to even find paw prints.


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