Jaguar walk tourism outcry

Published on Thursday 3 February 2011 14:02

VISITORS to Ambue Ari animal reserve must brave mosquitoes, cayman lurking in the waterways and monkeys that like to steal their property and urinate on them.

But still they come, attracted by the opportunity to take a big cat for a walk.

The Bolivian reserve has more than two dozen jaguars, ocelots and pumas housed in cages.

As a result Ambue Ari, legendary in hostels on South America's backpacking circuit, has found itself at the centre of a controversy involving welfare officials and big cat experts for allowing visitors such intimate contact with dangerous and endangered predators.

Animal welfare groups would like Ambue Ari to stop allowing jaguars out for walks. "We asked them during an inspection to stop this practice," said David Kopp, of the vice ministry of biodiversity in the capital, La Paz.

But in Bolivia, one of South America's poorest nations, regulatory grey areas can be broad - especially in the remote interior. Mr Kopp acknowledged that Ambue Ari served an important role in caring for rescued jaguars that zoos could not accept.

Ambue Ari's directors and many of its visiting volunteers say they are devoted to the animals, some of which are rescued from captivity as abused pets or illegally trafficked in outdoor markets. By having the big cats walked, Ambue Ari's directors argue, they have greater freedom than those held in zoos.

"Our cats live with more dignity than those in any zoo," said Tania Baltazar, 37, the president of Inti Wara Yassi, the non-profit group that manages Ambue Ari. She said no-one at Ambue Ari, which covers more than 1,991 acres of forest, had been killed by the cats since it opened in 2002. But she acknowledged that some injuries were an inevitable result of such close interaction.

"Scars are nature's tattoos," she said, showing a few of her own.

The place attracts an eclectic mix of visitors. In the depths of January's rainy season, the visitors numbered 16, including a Canadian joiner, a Swedish security guard, a British gap-year student and an Australian environmental consultant.

Each pays $10 (6) a day to live in a setting somewhere between spartan and squalid. For those worried about injuries vet Zandro Vargas is on duty to stitch up the wounded. The more aggressive animals are not let out of their large cages, where they still enjoy more freedom than in the average zoo.

Jaguars can weigh up to 250lb and are capable of killing cattle and horses. Attacks on humans are rare but can easily be fatal.

A Bolivia-born jaguar killed a warden at Denver Zoo in 2007. Another killed a gold miner in Guyana in 2009.In Belize, a jaguar that escaped from a rescue centre during a hurricane last October is said to have mauled an American to death.

"Relative to their weight, jaguars have the most powerful bite of all cats," said Rafael Hoogesteijn, a Venezuelan vet who works in Brazil for Panthera, a big cat conservation group. He called the methods used at Ambue Ari "an invitation to disaster".

Robert Thoren, 27, a climber from Los Angeles, arrived in Ambue Ari for a brief stay. He ended up staying four years and now oversees construction at the group's three sites. "It's no more dangerous to volunteer here than in the Sudan," he said. "We've had no lost limbs."