"Yaguará" is the native word for jaguar. We chose this name for our organization as a symbol of how important we consider it is to link scientific work with involving local people in order to conserve the jaguar and many other species in an effective way. By preserving the original name, we show that we respect its origin.

Thanks to this vision, we are a model organization in the conservation of wildlife, mainly wild cats. The work with local people, the collaboration with the National Park System and the valuable information generated through our scientific research have all contributed to ensure survival for the jaguar populations and their prey throughout their range of distribution in two key countries (Panama and Costa Rica).

Our team

Aida is Costa Rican with a dual citizenship (her mom is Panamanian). She is a forestry engineer and has an M.S. in Wildlife Conservation and Management. She started her work with wildcats thanks to different influences in her life, but mainly because of her fascination for cheetahs. Her work with wild cats in the Osa Peninsula started in 2003, and she has lived here since 2006, when she founded the Wildcat Conservation Program. Despite initial skepticism (a lot of key people didn’t believe there were any jaguars left in the area, so raising funds to begin the project was difficult), she was able to start the pilot study that proved there were jaguars thanks to Idea Wild and Saint Louis Rainforest Advocates. After the initial study proved its point, the program received support from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Friends of the Osa, and was finally able to implement the most intensive camera-trap project in the world! In 2009 she founded Yaguará in order to broaden her work in the Osa Peninsula, other parts of Costa Rica and Panama.

Thanks to her studies and vision, the program now has several projects derived from camera traps and work with local people (poachers, cattle ranchers, communities, children, lodges and other institutions) that give Yaguará hope to be able to save the jaguars on the Osa Peninsula, which are now in critical danger of extinction.

Ricardo is Panamanian. He graduated as a biologist from Panama University, with an M.S. in Wildlife Conservation and Management. Ever since he was 14 years old he had a particular interest for domestic cats, which made it easy to choose his profession. Ricardo now has 13 years of experience working with wildcats, and he is actually the first Panamanian to work with wildcats in his country –something that was considered unreachable-. He worked for a long time with the Smithsonian’s ocelot project in Barro Colorado Island and then did his thesis in the Cana station of Darien National Park, thanks to the financing provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society and to the logistic support of Ancon Expeditions. Ricardo met Aida in 2005 and she passed on her love for the Osa!

Adolfo is an agronomist graduated from the EARTH University, with a marked inclination towards sustainability and working with people. He has an enormous ability to win over the appreciation of everyone who surrounds him thanks to his modesty and willingness to help in everything possible. Since July of 2010 he is working full time on Yaguara´s projects!