CONHUAS, Mexico — Esteban Dominguez has lived for more than 20 years close to one of the biggest conservation areas in southeastern Mexico — Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán Peninsula. He’s used to spotting monkeys, coatis, eagles, tapirs, deer, wild turkeys, owls, and even pumas and jaguars. But he recalls only a couple times when an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) briefly crossed his path. “They are smaller, harder to see, and disappear much faster than jaguars,” he says. But Dominguez has hard evidence that these small cats with their characteristic spotted coats live in the reserve and its surroundings. “I have set up and monitored 28 camera-trap stations for different researchers since 2014, and there are always photos of ocelots on each camera,” he says. Mostly, these images are accidental, termed “bycatch” by scientists and NGOs that primarily monitor for more charismatic species like jaguars (Panthera onca) or pumas (Puma concolor). The 35-year-old Dominguez was originally a farmer, but his passion is nature, and over the years he has turned into a citizen scientist, aiding biologists, guiding tourists, and teaching his community in the village of Conhuas about environmental protection. “This is very important as we live in the buffer zone of the national park,” he says. The village’s location in the rainforest is beautiful, but also challenging for its 800 inhabitants, most of them settlers from other parts of Mexico who arrived in the 1980s, well before Calakmul was declared a biosphere reserve in 1989. Those settlers first tried…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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