Tracking Jaguars on the beaches of Costa Rica: a unique adventure

A few days ago, around 6 p.m., I was doing regular dad things, yelling at kids to turn down the volume on their iPads and chatting with my wife, when my phone indicated that I had a new message on WhatsApp had a loud ping. The phone revealed a new message in the Jaguar Group. The Jaguar Group is made up of a few jaguar researchers who share information among themselves, and I must admit that I am extremely proud to have become involved a few months ago.

The administrator of this group, Luis Fonseca, had sent a message saying that there was the possibility of accompanying him to check his camera traps placed on forested beaches in northern Guanacaste, where jaguars are known to prey on sea turtles that come up the coast to lay their eggs.

After a quick phone call with Luis and the kind permission of my wife, whom I was surprised to abandon in the middle of a work week with the kids, I confirmed my presence. The plan was vague but interesting. Here’s what I knew: I needed a tent, a pair of Crocs, and a few clothes packed in a dry bag. I would take a boat at 6am, travel to beaches in a national park, check out camera traps and then end up on an island I had never been to before to sleep in a tent apparently. Luis also specifically confirmed that I could swim. So maybe I jumped ship? I wasn’t sure.

At 6 a.m. the day of the adventure, I boarded a small boat with a team of jaguar and sea turtle researchers. We continued north and eventually arrived at the first beach monitored for jaguar activity. We rode a wave like a surfer into the small mouth of a hidden estuary and rode quite a distance until we finally landed at the back of the beach.

We spent a few hours on the beach checking out camera traps where the forest met the sand, which were full of jaguar videos, along with a whole host of other species. After installing a few new camera traps, we waded to the waiting boat (hence the need to be able to swim) and headed to the next beach.

Just as we approached the second destination, what was once a sunny day turned dark and it started to rain. This beach had an island a short distance away and as we got closer the waves were crashing on underwater rocks that stretched from the mainland to the island. The captain shouted out that we had to be careful of the hidden rocks and as the rain poured down, thunder struck and a wave rose over the submerged rocks, reaching considerably higher than our boat. A thought occurred to me that sometimes pops up when I’m on adventures like this, it’s a combination of, ‘This is probably not the safest thing I’ve ever done’ and ‘Who’s letting me do this?’.

Finally we caught a wave at the right time and drifted safely over the rocks. After a short wait the dark clouds and rain drifted out to sea, and we had another beautiful day. We waded out of the boat onto a shore where lush, forested mountains hugged the sea in a way that reminded me of Hawaii.

We immediately began searching the forest along the beach for camera traps and came across long rows of jaguar tracks in the sand, as well as piles of sea turtle bones along the edge of the forest. We assessed several camera traps, each full of jaguar activity. Luis knows the local jaguars so well that he spit out the names of several individuals after a quick look at their spotting patterns while watching the videos on this phone.

After retreating back to the boat, we raced into the next set of storms and arrived at a sandy beach on a nearby island. We were immediately met by the ranger staff manning the two-story station, located on a hill above the beach, and they helped us haul all the equipment to the station. The rest of the trip focused on the sea turtle researchers presenting information about the different species of sea turtles found in the area and conducting some hands-on nest monitoring activities with the park rangers on the beach.

I was invited to participate in the activities, I was fed well the entire time by the man whose job it seemed to be to keep everyone’s bellies full, and I was even allowed to leave my tent for an inflatable mattress that was placed on the porch of the station was on the second floor. . Not to be outdone by the first boat tour, the next day’s boat tour included flying fish, multiple groups of dolphins and breaching humpback whales. The whole activity was so fun and interesting that I had to write an article about it for the Tico Times.

Luis has been hard at work monitoring the jaguars that stalk these beautiful tropical beaches for over twenty years. I had assumed he was affiliated with some university, but I discovered that it is a project he is leading himself and that always needs more support. If you are looking to support conservation in Costa Rica and think jaguars roaming the beaches and eating sea turtles is as fascinating as I do, I suggest supporting Luis in his efforts. You can contact him directly at [email protected] or you can contact me and I will help.

I don’t have access to Luis’ jaguar videos so I can’t share them with you, but I did manage to take a few videos and photos of the adventure with my phone.

About the author

Vincent Losasso, founder of Wildlife monitoring in Guanacasteis a biologist who works with camera traps throughout Costa Rica. Read more about his projects at Facebook or instagram. You can also email him at: [email protected]