麻豆传媒

Much of what kept jaguars off the endangered species list is blind luck (Image: Claus Meyer/Minden Pictures)

As a stuttering boy, Alan Rabinowitz liked talking to a zoo jaguar. The inspiring tale of how he grew up to save the big cats awaits in An Indomitable Beast

WHEN Alan Rabinowitz was a child he had a problem: he had a stutter so severe it left him unable to utter a complete sentence to another person. Like many who stutter, however, Rabinowitz could talk freely to animals.

At night, he would step into his bedroom closet and whisper to his pet turtles, snakes and hamsters. His favourite animal, however, was an old jaguar, trapped behind bars at New York鈥檚 Bronx Zoo. Some day, Rabinowitz promised the animals, he would find his voice, and then he would speak for the creatures that couldn鈥檛.

聯He promised the animals he would find his voice, and then speak for the creatures that couldn鈥檛聰

So begins a riveting tale of environmental success by a man who has been a force of, and for, nature ever since. While other big cats have plummeted to near extinction, jaguars thrive. What, I wondered, were Rabinowitz and others doing differently? Could their work be a model?

An Indomitable Beast begins with an exhaustively researched natural history of the jaguar from palaeo to present. And in telling the cat鈥檚 story, Rabinowitz takes the reader on a personal quest, from ancient Mayan ruins to London Zoo, as he seeks to uncover the of the animal he seeks to protect.

We learn of the animal鈥檚 savagery (jaguars kill by crushing the skulls of their prey). And of its adaptability (these cats crossed a land bridge from northern Asia before settling in the tropics of North, Central and South America). They are also not aggressive toward humans (there are no 鈥渕an-eating鈥� jaguars).

But what struck me most of all was that much of what has kept the western hemisphere鈥檚 largest cat off the endangered species list has come down to blind luck.

When Europeans colonised the New World, the diseases they carried killed 90 per cent of the indigenous population. Ironically, this incredible loss of life gave jaguars breathing room from human encroachment that lasted for several centuries.

By the time Rabinowitz came to Belize as a young biologist, local Mayans were poaching 鈥渆l tigre鈥� by the score. To protect jaguars, studies alone wouldn鈥檛 suffice. In the summer of 1984, Rabinowitz landed a meeting with Belize鈥檚 prime minister and his cabinet. Drawing on lessons learned in intensive speech therapy and a tremendous amount of sheer nerve, he overcame his stutter and convinced them to create the world鈥檚 first jaguar reserve.

A single reserve, however, doesn鈥檛 save big cats. What I found most interesting about Rabinowitz鈥檚 efforts to save jaguars was a discovery he and his colleagues made decades later.

Until recently, everyone had assumed that jaguars, in common with other large, wide-ranging carnivores, consisted of a number of non-interbreeding subspecies. In order to protect the species as a whole, conservationists assumed they would have to build habitat corridors between distinct populations so the cats could find each other and interbreed.

Then a genetic analysis made across the jaguar鈥檚 range turned the notion upside down. From the deserts of northern Mexico to the wetlands of southern Brazil, cats were moving and mating as one population. The corridors already existed, they just had to be uncovered and maintained. That鈥檚 what Rabinowitz and , a non-profit organisation he co-founded, have done ever since in the Jaguar Corridor Initiative.

One month after Rabinowitz secured what would be the first of many protected areas for jaguars, he was walking through the Belize jungle when he came upon the largest tracks he had ever seen. He followed the tracks through the forest for hours with no luck.

When he turned around to head home, he realised the animal had circled back and was following him. Rabinowitz froze, then crouched down. The jaguar sat down too. He thought back to the old, caged animal that he used to visit at the Bronx Zoo. The two beasts stared at each other. Then Rabinowitz leaned forward. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all right now,鈥� he whispered to the cat. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all going to be all right.鈥�

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭he jaguar whisperer鈥�