172 collared jaguars just drew the map that could keep the Americas' biggest cat connected

Jaguars still roam from Mexico to Argentina, but their forests are fragmenting. In the largest study of its kind, published in Global Change Biology, researchers tracked 172 GPS-collared jaguars and mapped 307 core habitats and 176 corridors linking them — anchored by one vast stronghold of about 6.5 million square kilometres across the Amazon, Pantanal and Chaco. First author Guilherme Costa Alvarenga, based in Tefé, Brazil, says the map shows exactly where protection will do the most good.