Spotted Cats and the Amazon Skin Trade

Abstract

In Brazil the trade in spotted cat skins - mainly jaguar and ocelot - built up in the early 1960s and provoked the Government in 1967 to outlaw all commercial exploitation of wildlife. The author estimates that this cut the annual kill from 15,000 jaguars and 80,000 ocelots to about half, which he thinks both populations can stand without becoming endangered. Moreover, the programme of massive development and settlement on the forest margins along the new Transamazon highway has run into difficulties, and forest destruction has so far been much less than was expected. © 1976, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.