We design our Earthwatch Teen Expeditions specifically and exclusively for 15- to 18-year-olds. They’re unlike any other experience a teenager can have.
Do something special this summer: track jaguars and other rare predators in the jungles of Brazil and meet fascinating people from around the world.
The Araguaia River corridor connects the highly fragmented and threatened central Brazilian savannah (the cerrado) and the vast wilderness of the Amazonian rainforest. At the headwaters of the river lies Emas National Park, where jaguars, pumas, maned wolves, tapirs, and giant anteaters roam. You can help find out how these species use the land around the park, which matters because people are planting more and more of the land with sugarcane and taking away these species’ natural habitat.
You’ll map the movements of some of these animals to determine what factors influence where they go. You’ll also help install camera traps around the sugarcane plantations to capture images of animals that pass by. Working with trained dogs, you’ll look for signs these species have left behind.
Your work will help researchers find the best way to manage the land so that it supports these sometimes quite rare species. And while you work, you might catch a glimpse of some exotic forest creatures - in the past, Earthwatchers have seen macaws, giant anteaters, tapirs, armadillos, crab-eating foxes, ocelots, maned wolves, and even a puma.