The piercing eyes of the animal above speak to us. These eyes share with us the reality that there is more to this creature than a list of interesting facts about what it likes to eat and where it likes to sleep. These eyes reveal intellect, emotion, thoughts and feelings. This is a jaguarundi, one of the wild cats whose home is at Las Pumas Rescue Center, a Costa Rican Wildlife Refuge.
Last year I traveled to Cañas, a town over two hours from Nosara, specifically to visit Las Pumas, a Costa Rican Wildlife Refuge that has a number of Costa Rica’s most amazing animal species, which are also some of the most threatened. The photos below were taken while I was visiting the rescue center.
Some of the most beautiful animals found at Las Pumas Rescue Center are jaguars. Because jaguars live deep in the jungle, they are rarely seen in the wild. But they do, sometimes, come in contact with people, and these encounters usually do not end well for the jaguar. Even in a country as rich in bio diversity as Costa Rica, famous for its wildlife and conservation efforts, these animals are considered a “near threatened” species. Their numbers have diminished across Latin America, and they have become extinct in some countries where they once roamed. While poaching is a problem, deforestation is the primary cause of their decline. These cats are sensitive to the loss of their habitat, and when people enter their territory and hunters deplete their food source, the jaguars begin to venture onto farmland where they are killed by farmers. Fortunately, the Costa Rican government recently outlawed hunting for sport, and conservation programs have been implemented that help farmers avoid situations where they would need to use deadly force to protect their livestock. The jaguar in the photo to the left is Tiggy, rescued as a cub years ago from men trying to sell him for his beautiful coat.
Another cat at Las Pumas is Max, a young and playful ocelot, who was once a pet that turned out to be more than his owners could handle. The Rescue Center takes in injured animals, cubs who’s parents were killed, as well as animals that were acquired as pets. During the 1980s, when the fur trade was strong, the number of ocelots declined significantly. In the U.S. alone, 133,000 ocelot pelts arrived every year. Today, like the jaguar, the ocelot is confronted with habitat loss, but its numbers are more substantial. However, ocelots continue to be targeted for their fur and the pet trade. And while such beautiful cats may seem desirable as pets, just consider the fact that they are often acquired through unethical ways, and each ocelot taken from the wild prevents their population from growing.
Las Pumas also has the big cats that the center is named after. While jaguars and ocelots, surprisingly enough, can still be found in the United States, particularly near the border of Mexico in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, the puma is, by far, more prevalent throughout the country. In the U.S. they are usually referred to as cougars, mountain lions or evenFlorida panthers. Like the ocelot, in general, their conservation status is “least concern,” but they are considered endangered or extinct in certain regions where they once roamed. The Florida panther, for example, is extremely endangered. The cougar population, on the other hand, appears to be moving east and reclaiming their historic range in the mid-western United States. But, overall, despite some positive signs of growth in certain areas, deforestation has taken its toll on pumas throughout the Americas, including Costa Rica.
Besides big cats, other beautiful native species of Costa Rica can be found at Las Pumas Rescue Center. Keel-billed toucans, scarlet macaws, monkeys, and otters are just some of the other animals that have been rescued. And many of the animals that are cared for at Las Pumas are rehabilitated and released back into the wild. The rescue center was founded in the 1960s by Lilly Bodmer de Hagnauer, a Swiss woman who lived in Costa Rica and was dedicated to protecting wild animals. Today the foundation fights against hunting, deforestation and poaching in Guanacaste through environmental education programs. The foundation gives people the chance to admire the beauty of these amazing animals up close, which, hopefully, inspires them to value the life of each and every animal they encounter, as well as wild animals in general.
When you travel through Costa Rica, you may see monkeys swinging from limb to limb, scarlet macaws flying in pairs through the wide open sky, and toucans surprising you with their vibrant colors as they majestically appear gliding through a wild lush mountainous landscape. And when you are blessed to witness such incredible animals enjoying the world the way that they should, you come to realize, without a doubt, that these animals should be free. And little by little you learn how incredibly foolish it is to believe that pumas or jaguars are pests because they enter our property, when, in reality, we were the ones who not only entered their property first, but also killed off their food source by hunting what they eat.
The animals at Las Pumas Rescue Center are caged, but only because they have been rescued and are being rehabilitated. Yet, it’s still sad to see a monkey peering through a cage wanting to communicate. Seeing macaws confined to small spaces after having witnessed other macaws flying free brings to mind what they are missing. And because of this, we realize what we’re missing as well. For too long our desire to possess these animals, through poaching or the pet trade, and our desire to claim their land as ours, has threatened to rob us of their existence. We have to change course, and we have to realize, once and for all, that choosing to take less from Mother Earth will ultimately leave us with so much more.
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