Saving jaguars of Belize

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 20

Saving jaguars of Belize

By

DEBORAH ZABARENKO,

of Reuters, in New York

Alan Rabinowitz became known as “El Hombre Tigre” (Jaguar Man) in the jungles of Belize, where he spent two years living with the Mayan Indians, and helping to set up the world’s first jaguar reserve.

He followed the elusive animals with the help of Mayan trackers, dogs, a safari guide, and his own lOOcc motor-cycle.

He wanted to learn about the beautiful big cats and save them from extinction.

The harsh life in the jungle is graphically described in his new book “Jaguar." He lived in a tiny shack in the jungle village of Cockscomb, a community of Mayan Indians who eked out an existence by growing corn or working at lumbering. The Indians who camped on his doorstep and shared their armadillo stew with him became his friends.

It was a two-way cultural exchange: the Mayans took up such modern pastimes as lifting weights to the beat of his country-and-western tapes. During his stay Mr Rabinowitz, who until then had lived in Brooklyn, also encountered the lethal fer-de-lance snake and the botfly, a parasite from a sciencefiction nightmare. It deposits its eggs under humans’ skin and the bugs chomp their way painfully out.

There appeared to be a dense jaguar population in the Belizean jungle, even though hunting and cultivation were cutting into the big cat’s habitat. Mr Rabinowitz’s job was to capture the animals, attach small radio transmitters around their necks, and free them. The radio collars would transmit information about the animals’ range and movement within the jungle.

After months of tracking jaguars with a Creole guide, Mr Rabinowitz saw his first “tigre” in the wild, a moment he recalls as "magic.” “All of a sudden I hear an intake of breath, and I see (the Creole) raise his arms,” Mr Rabinowitz said. “We were coming up over a hill and right on the other side of that hill was a jaguar who knew we were coming • ••” As the two men topped the hill, they came within six metres of the cat, who stood in the path, watching them. “These eyes showed no fear, just strictly curiosity,” Mr Rabinowitz said. “I wanted to watch him, but the hunter was raising his gun to shoot him, because he was terrified. So I turned to him and said, ‘No!’ And that’s when the jaguar just walked off into «the forest, just disappeared.”