Wildlife Tourism Opens Opportunities to Explore Agonistic Interactions Among Elusive Neotropical Cats

Wildlife tourism is a globally expanding activity that acts as a double-edged sword, bringing benefits to communities and conservation while potentially affecting species behavior. However, habituation to tourists also serves as a catalyst for behavioral ecology research by allowing the observation of target species. In the Pantanal of Brazil and the Llanos of Colombia, jaguar-oriented tourism has made possible the recording of unprecedented behaviors. In this paper we present records of agonistic interactions between jaguars and two other wild cats, the puma and the ocelot, involving interspecific killing and intra-guild predation. We discuss the nature of these interactions and the role of wildlife tourism as a tool to unravel the behaviors of these elusive wild cats of the Americas.