Jaguar: Eater Of Souls

THE SETTING The Javari Valley is one of the largest indigenous areas in Brazil and covers eight million hectares on its western border with Peru. It could claim to be the most inaccessible region of the Amazonian rainforest and it’s here that the ‘Jaguar People’, or Matis, live. They are one of six known indigenous peoples who live in the valley - the others are the Marubo. Matses, Kanamari, Kulina and recently-contacted Korubo. There are also at least eight groups of uncontacted Indians, the largest concentration of such people in the Amazon - taking the total population to about 4000. All the Javari peoples are hunters and gatherers who also cultivate manioc, plantains and corn. But powerful logging interests and cocaine cartels have put the Indians’ land under intense pressure - it is estimated that 90 per cent of the locally-logged hardwood comes from the Javari Valley and drug traffickers have cut airstrips deep into the area. Most of the Marubos have had many years of dealings with civilisation but the Matis were not contacted by the government’s Indian affairs agency until the late Seventies. That encounter was to have far-reaching effects. For soon afterwards more than half the Matis population died from disease. They stopped practising their ceremonies and, like many Indians suffering from the trauma of initial contact, stopped having children. By 1983 there were only 87 members of the Matis alive - and it has taken them the best part of 20 years to recover! The Javari Valley - about two and a half times the size of Belgium - was designated an indigenous area in 1985 and European funds were earmarked to protect it. Even so, the Brazilian government was slow to act and it was not until December 1998 that the president signed the decree ordering the official demarcation. More recently, however - in December 1999 - environmentalists won a great victory when the Brazilian Congress postponed voting on a legislative proposal. Large and powerful landowners supported the bill, which would have allowed the legal deforestation of millions of acres of rainforests and the clearing of savannahs for agricultural monocultures. But they suffered a rare defeat when further discussion of changes to Brazil's Forest Code, which regulates the use of forest land, was postponed until March 2000. There was then an attempt made by members of the Brazilian Congress to change the Code so that deforestation would be increased. Although domestic and international pressure led to this threat being averted in May last year, the forests are still not safe. For the same members of Congress are again proposing a change which would have a detrimental effect on both peoples and the environment. To prevent this, an SOS Forests campaign has been launched by Greenpeace, WWF Brazil and Brazil’s Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).. Latest news is that a decision on the new Forest Code should be made in September, when Congress is in session again.   The Film & The Film Makers   /   Jaguars   /    Video Clip   /   Map   PRODUCTION CREDITS: Producer and cameraman: Nick Gordon SURVIVAL producer: Mike Linley. Narrator: John Shrapnel Editor: Howard Marshall Executive producer: Petra Regent A SURVIVAL/ National Geographic/ ZDF co-production. * Jaguar: Eater of Souls was a finalist at last October’s Wildscreen festival in Bristol and to date has won five top international awards.   FURTHER READING: (Selection courtesy of NHBS Ltd, 2 - 3 Willis Road, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5XN. Tel (01803 865913/ Fax. 865280. Email: nhbs@nhbs.co.uk Web: http:/www.nhbs.com) BIG CATS Douglas Richardson. Third in the Whittet World Wildlife series, covering the biology and behaviour of the eight big cats: lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, cheetah, puma, snow leopard, and clouded leopard. World Wildlife Series. 128 pages, 12 col & 35 b/w line illus. Price:GBP9.99 1992 NHBS Stock Code:#021723L hardback Whittet DEFENDING THE LAND OF THE JAGUAR A History of Conservation in Mexico L Simonian. Mexican conservationists have sometimes observed that it is difficult to find a country less interested in the conservation of its natural resources than Mexico. Yet, despite a long history dedicated to the pursuit of development regardless of its environmental consequences, Mexico has an equally long, though much less appreciated, tradition of environmental conservation. 326 pages, b/w photos, tabs, maps. Price:GBP39.95 1995 NHBS Stock Code:#049778L hardback Price:GBP22.80 1995 NHBS Stock Code:#049779L paperback Texas UP, USA JAGUAR Rafael Hoogesteijn and Edgardo Mondolfi. Excellent monograph on the jaguar in Venezuela, but which also includes data for the species in the rest of South America. Chapters cover in good detail physical characteristics, behaviour, ecology, reproduction, subspecies & distribution, conflicts with man, abundance & status, conservation, and the species future. Extensively illustrated with colour photos. 183 pages, 197 col photos, 5 maps, 3 figs. English Edition 183 pages. Price:GBP105 1993 NHBS Stock Code:#021383L hardback To order on-line:http://www.nhbs.com/xbscripts/bkfsrch?search=21383 Jaguar One Man's Struggle to Establish the World's First Jaguar Preserve Alan Rabinowitz In 1983, zoologist Alan Rabinowitz ventured into the rain forest of Belize, determined to study the little-known jaguar in its natural habitat and to establish the world's first jaguar preserve. Within two years, he had succeeded. In Jaguar he provides the only first-hand account of a scientist's experience with jaguars in the wild. Originally published in 1986, this edition includes a new preface and epilogue by the author that brings the story up-to-date with recent events in the region and around the world. 378 pages, b/w photos, paperback, 2000, 2nd Edition Price:GBP16.50 Island Press NHBS Stock Code:#105704L To order on-line:http://www.nhbs.com/xbscripts/bkfsrch?search=105704   KINGDOM OF MIGHT: THE WORLD'S BIG CATS T Brakefield. Highly illustrated introduction to the big cats - lion, tiger, leopard, puma, cheetah, jaguar, snow leopard and clouded leopard. Text covers behaviour, natural history, biology, population, range, and conservation issues. 160 pages, 120 col photos, maps. Price:GBP14.95 1996 NHBS Stock Code:#055206L paperback Swan Hill Press THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WILD CATS Andrew Kitchener. Covers all 36 members of the cat family, with particular emphasis on the smaller members, the felids. Christopher Helm Mammal Series. 280 pages, 20 col plates, b\w illus, figs, tabs. Published in USA NEOTROPICAL CATS Ecology and Conservation Tadeu Gomes de Oliveira. The first book devoted to the cats of this region. It is an invaluable summary of virtually all that is known about the 10 species (ocelot, margay, oncilla, Geoffroy's cat, kodkod, Pampas cat, Andean cat, jaguarundi, puma, and jaguar) that inhabit the neotropics from southern Texas downwards. 220 pages, 13 col plates, illus, figs, tabs. Price:GBP22.95 1993 NHBS Stock Code:#040981L paperback Maranhao Universidade, Brazil SPIRITS OF THE JAGUAR The Natural History and Ancient Civilisations of the Caribbean and Central America Paul Reddish. Vivid and lucid telling of the natural and human history of the region, from geological origins through to the arrival of the Maya, Aztecs and Europeans. 224 pages, 70 col photos, maps. Price:GBP18.99 1996 NHBS Stock Code:#053642L hardback BBC Books THROUGH JAGUAR EYES Crossing the Amazon Basin Benedict Allen. 320 pages, col illus. Price:GBP7.99 1995 NHBS Stock Code:#050465L paperback Harper Collins WILD CATS C. Brett. A photographic essay on most of the world's 35 wild cat species, drawn from the library of Survival Anglia. 128 pages, 150 col photos. Price:GBP16.99 1992 NHBS Stock Code:#014616L hardback Boxtree WILD CATS OF THE WORLD David Alderton. Comprehensive new paperback guide which covers wild cats from Scotland to Siberia - their zoology, biology, evolution and classification. 192 pages, 113 colour photos by Bruce Tanner, 5 line drawings, 30 maps. Price:GBP16.99 1998 NHBS Stock Code:#083093L paperback Blandford WILD CATS OF THE WORLD Photographs by Art Wolfe, text by Barbara Sleeper. A photographic tribute to each of the world's 37 species of wild cat, by this renowned wildlife photographer. 216 pages, 191 col photos. Price:GBP40 1997 NHBS Stock Code:#049168L hardback Crown, USA     FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET: Nick Gordon’s own website – www.nickgordon.com Includes images and sounds from the films on which he has worked as well as details of his book, Tarantulas, Marmosets and Other Stories - described by Sir David Attenborough as 'the book that so many... have been waiting for'. Instituto Socioambiental – www.socioambiental.org/website/noticias/english/brazil/20010705.html Background information regarding ongoing Brazilian Forest Code debate. Survival International – www.survival-international.org Contains details of current campaigns to support tribal peoples and of ways in which you can get involved and help. World Resources Institute – www.wri.org/wri Contains a wealth of information about climate, biodiversity and deforestation. WWW-Brazil News – www.peacelink.it/webgate/ecologia/msg00106.html Provides information on background to present debate on Brazil’s Forest Code.