A group of poachers operating in the Amazon was dismantled. In three months, they killed "eight jaguars, 13 capybaras, 10 peccaries and two deer".

The Brazilian authorities have dismantled a group of poachers in the Amazon region, one of whom is suspected of having killed more than 1,000 jaguars since 1987, the prosecutor's office said.

These seven men "acted inside Acre (northern state, on the border of Peru)" by "killing animals of the region, like jaguars, capybaras, peccaries and deer," said Monday in a statement the public prosecutor, who placed on tapping and tracking the poachers for three months.

"More than 1,000 jaguars" since 1987?

During this period, they organized 11 hunting trips, during which "eight jaguars, 13 capybaras (large semi-aquatic rodents, Ed), 10 peccaries (sort of wild boar originating from South America) and two deer" have been killed.

The "oldest and most active" member of the group "poach at least since 1987 and, according to our information, he could alone have killed more than a thousand jaguars during this period of time," added the prosecutor. The defendants risk jail time and fines, depending on their degree of involvement.

A "near-threatened" species

The jaguar, the largest feline in America, is present in 18 Latin American countries from northwestern Argentina to the central highlands of Mexico. It is considered a "near-threatened" species, with a population of 64,000 individuals that tends to decline, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Of the estimated 55,000 jaguars in Brazil, 40,000 are in the Amazon and more than 13,000 in the Pantanal (center-west), another huge sanctuary of biodiversity in Brazil, according to the Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity (ICMBio) , a government agency.