Jaguar is seen in a park in the north of São Paulo for the first time

A puma was spotted for the first time walking through Anhanguera Park, in the north of São Paulo, close to the highway. The video images of the animal were captured by surveillance cameras at the Refúgio de Vida Silvestre reserve at dawn this Friday (9), during wildlife survey activities.

According to Juliana Summa, director of the wild fauna division of the Municipal Secretariat for the Green and the Environment, the cougar of the species Puma concolor he does not walk around the park every day, but uses Anhanguera as his daily use area.

“We’ve never recorded before with an image [a presença do animal]. That’s why a lot of people didn’t believe they could roam there”, says Summa.

Yara Barros, coordinator of the Onças do Iguaçu project, says that sometimes these animals come out of the forest and roam around the city or in nearby areas, especially young women, who are in the dispersal phase, as she calls them.

“After the age of two, young people have to leave their mother’s side. As the puma has an ecological elasticity, and tolerates the changes caused by man a little more, it ends up arriving in more disturbed places, such as cities, through sugarcane plantations, for example.”

Summa says the puma was probably looking for food. According to her, the puma usually uses the Anhanguera park area because it is part of its territory, which is kilometers long.

“The Anhanguera Wildlife Refuge is an important conservation unit for the maintenance of these jaguars, they are their natural habitat. Whether hunting, looking for a partner for reproduction or to use as a corridor to access other green areas”, he says.

The city specialist makes an alert. As much as people are startled by the presence of a jaguar, are afraid or intimidated, she says, it is important to know that these animals, top predators, still roam São Paulo.

“This shows the importance of conservation and maintenance of these green areas for the fauna.”