Electronic ears spy on poachers in a key Central American jaguar habitat

The international NGO Panthera has been using acoustical monitoring systems to support their anti-poaching patrols in Guatemala and Honduras since 2017. The acoustical recorders can pick up gunshots, conversations and wildlife sounds, and help rangers plan their patrols to be more effective in combating illegal activities. Panthera is particularly concerned about protecting the jaguar, which is threatened by poaching, wildlife trafficking and habitat loss in this region. A gunshot explodes through the rainforest, followed by what sounds like branches falling from a tree. A dog barks. “Tito, did I hit it?” a man asks his companion in Spanish. “Oh yes, I did hit it. Look, there is blood dripping. I shot it from over there.” These sounds were recorded on an acoustical monitoring unit deployed by Panthera , a wild cat conservation organization, in Guatemala’s Sierra Caral National Protected Area, a region close to the Honduras border. “We believe they shot an animal that was up the trees,” Franklin Castañeda, Panthera’s Honduras director, told Mongabay. “I’m guessing it could have been a monkey or some kind of great curassow bird.” In 2017, Panthera started using acoustical monitoring systems to help strengthen its anti-poaching patrols in three protected areas: Honduras’s […]

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