Abstract:
The starting point for this article is a fieldwork conducted between 2006 and 2008 on cattle ranches in the southern Pantanal that were home to jaguar (Panthera onca) conservation projects. The two themes addressed in it are complementary. The first could be described as a shared ecology, and refers to the contrasts and possible compositions between the knowledge practices of conservation biologists and those of the Pantanal cowboys and hunters. In this case, it is an example that allows some considerations about the complex relations between scientific and traditional knowledge, questioning the lines of continuity and the conflicts that arise from such a meeting. The second theme concerns the individual trajectories of particular agents, or actors, in biological field studies. It is a question of how the specific and sometimes unusual actions of certain jaguars are incorporated into the practices and knowledge (scientific or not) connected with the behavior of the species. These two themes – namely, scientific versus traditional knowledge and individual trajectories within the study of animal behavior – allow a reflection on the conservationist network of the jaguar using elements that are usually hidden or invisible in the processes of circulation of the facts described herein. The point of the article is that the focus on these themes opens new perspectives to the socioecological issues that the conservationist network in question is capable of capturing.
Keywords:
conservation; jaguar; Pantanal; socioecology