The lushly forested nation of Guyana on Thursday joined a
regional pact to protect jaguars, the elusive spotted cat that
is the biggest land predator in the Americas, but is vulnerable
due to expanded agriculture and mining that have carved away at
their fragmented habitat. Leaders of the government’s
environment ministry were signing an agreement with the New
York-based conservation group Panthera, which is trying to
establish a “jaguar corridor,” a network of pathways that would
link core jaguar populations from northern Argentina to Mexico.
Guyana is pledging to ensure the protection of jaguars, the
national animal that is a near-threatened species. The South
American nation with some of the region’s least spoiled
wilderness joins Colombia and nations in Central America in
recognizing the corridor and agreeing to work toward the long-
term conservation of jaguars, said Esteban Payan, regional
director for Panthera’s northern South America jaguar program. A
network of cameras equipped with motion sensors and