Study Area

The work was conducted in four ejidos (a type of land tenure that combines private and communal land management) neighboring the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (MABR) in the Lacandon jungle region. The ejidos were Loma Bonita, Boca de Chajúl, López Mateos, and Reforma Agraria, all of which are located in the municipality of Marqués de Comillas, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico (see Figure 1). This is one of the regions of highest biodiversity in Mexico and is considered to be a priority zone for jaguar conservation at the national level (Ceballos, Chávez, List, & Zarza, 2007; Gómez-Pompa, Dirzo, Fernández, & Becerra, 1995; SEMARNAP, 2000). The MABR is located in the southeast of Mexico and is delimited to the south by Guatemala. The predominant vegetation is tropical high evergreen forest, which almost completely covers the reserve. The reserve contains more than 600 species of vertebrates and 24.8% of the total number of mammals in Mexico. This means that the site has the greatest richness of mammals in Mexico (Gómez-Pompa, Dirzo, Fernández, & Becerra, 1995; SEMARNAP, 2000). It is estimated that there are between 51 and 132 jaguars in the MABR (de la Torre & Medellín, 2011). The economy of the communities in the zone is based on extensive livestock production and agriculture, activities that have been promoted since the 60 s by the federal and state governments and which are responsible for a large part of the loss of the original tropical forest vegetation (De Vos, 2002; SEMARNAP, 2000).

Figure 1.

Location of the ejidos in Chiapas, Mexico, where the study was conducted; (1) Reforma Agraria, (2) Adolfo López Mateos, (3) Boca de Chajúl, and (4) Loma Bonita.

Research Approach and Instruments

Our research approach is socioecological because it is the interaction of human groups with ecosystems that is at the center of the conflict under study (Berkes & Folke, 2000). Given the central role of people within the study, we adopted a qualitative–interpretative focus (Taylor & Bogdan, 1987). The main research instruments were interviews, participant observation, and the use of drawings as a medium for children to express their views. Drawing is particularly effective in eliciting views and perceptions as it allows non-invasive interaction with the research participant (Cabezas, 2007). The children’s responses were backed up by researcher observations and by analyses of ideas given by children during the sessions. These were used to reinforce and triangulate the data obtained through interviews and through the children’s drawings (Taylor & Bogdan, 1987).

Age and School Selection

Children aged 6 to 12 (in first to six grade of the primary school system) were considered for participation in the study, since this age range generally constitutes a stage in which a child is interested in representing the models, classifications, and dominant symbols of his or her culture (Ives & Gardner, 1984). Four ejidos were selected based on sites where there have been confirmed cases of livestock depredation by the jaguar (Amador-Alcalá, Naranjo, & Jiménez-Ferrer, 2013; Peña-Mondragón et al., 2016). All children in each primary school in these ejidos were invited to participate in the study (Figure 1). It is important to note that there are not enough primary school teachers in schools in rural areas such as our study sites. In Boca de Chajul school, there were three teachers: one for first and second grades, another for third and fourth, and the third for fifth and sixth. In Loma Bonita y López Mateos, there were two teachers in each school (first, second, and third grades in one group and fourth, fifth, and sixth in another group). The school at Reforma Agraria had only one teacher for all six grades.

Working With the Children

We conducted one session per day with children from each school. Prior to each session, written permission was sought from the parents and teachers, to whom the purpose of the study was fully explained. The sessions were conducted outside the schools in order to create a different environment, one in which the children felt comfortable without the pressure of being under academic evaluation. These sessions were held in two tourist centers, Las Guacamayas and El Arca de Noé. Parents were also invited to be present during the sessions.

At the start of each session, the children and parents were welcomed, and some games were played which served as icebreakers and helped enable trust to be established between the children and the research team, so that they could feel comfortable during the activity. It was explained to the children that the activity would consist of drawing the Lacandon jungle and the animals that live in it. To avoid skewing the results through suggestion, no initial mention was made of the jaguar (or tiger, as the children commonly know it).

The children were given 30 minutes to create a drawing in response to each of three questions: (a) what animals live in the jungle? (b) which are the most dangerous animals that live in the jungle? and (c) what does the jaguar look like and what does it eat? This latter question was put in two parts: first, the children were asked to draw a jaguar and, 15 minutes later, to draw what it eats in the same drawing. The objective of the first question was to determine whether the children consider the jaguar to be an animal that lives in the jungle. The second question aimed to determine which animals they consider dangerous and whether this includes the jaguar. The objective of the third question was to establish how the children view the physical characteristics of the jaguar, to determine their knowledge of the species, and also to determine what the children consider to be the jaguar’s prey.

On completion of the first drawing, comments were made and recorded prior to continuing with the second and third drawings. Asking children to describe the details of their drawings was used as a method to obtain data to contextualize and support the information obtained from the drawings and to facilitate analysis. Thus, in addition to noting any comments made by the children among themselves regarding their drawings, each child was asked what their drawing represented, and the response was noted on the back of each drawing. The research team was careful at all times not to influence the children’s comments and drawings.

At the end of the drawing session, an integration activity was conducted. This consisted of providing the children with lunch and then, with the company and prior permission of parents and teachers, they were taken into the interior of the Reserve where they were given a guided tour with explanations about the functioning and importance of the tropical rainforest.

Data Analysis

The drawings were ordered according to child, grade, and school and were numbered in order to facilitate the construction of a database. Each drawing was digitized and entered into the software Atlas.ti version 5.5. Analysis was conducted according to academic grade and question. All of the features present in each drawing were identified including, for example, trees, snakes, and a waterfall. Each of these features was assigned an identifying code that was used throughout the analysis. For example, the code for tree was assigned to all of the trees represented in all of the drawings, regardless of type, form, or color. On completion of the codification process, each feature or code of each drawing was quantified and grouped into tables following the same order, according to grade and question.

Which Animals Live in the Jungle?

The children identified a total of 16 species of fauna. The four most commonly identified were fish (46%), snakes (42%), birds (35%), and in fourth place, the jaguar (33%; Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2.

Animals that live in the jungle. Total of frequencies documented for the question: Which animals live in the jungle? Names in English are taken from the IUCN. Common names in Spanish are provided in brackets.

Figure 3.

Examples of children’s drawings in response to the question: what animals live in the jungle? We have circled the jaguars in red.

Which Are the Most Dangerous Animals in the Jungle?

The children drew a total of six different animals they considered to be the most dangerous. The snake appeared in first place (91%) while the jaguar was in second place, mentioned in 65% of the responses (Figures 4 and 5).

Figure 4.

Dangerous animals. Total of frequencies documented for the question: Which are the most dangerous animals?.

Figure 5.

Examples of drawings in response to the question: Which are the most dangerous animals that live in the jungle? We have circled the jaguars in red.

What Does the Jaguar Look Like?

The most frequently noted characteristic were spots in the form of a rosette or a circle (63%). The jaguar was also drawn without ears (35%), without spots (19%), teeth bared (13%), and with claws (9%; Figure 6). Jaguars were also drawn expressing an “attitude.” A total of 23% of the children drew a smiling jaguar, 13% drew it baring its teeth, 14% drew it eating food in general, 7% drew it eating humans, 1% drew it smoking, and another 1% drew it with a firearm (Figure 7).

Figure 6.

Knowledge of basic features of the jaguar. Eleven corporal features were coded in the children’s’ drawings; frequencies obtained for these codes are shown.

Figure 7.

Perceptions toward the jaguar. Seven codes were constructed according to attitudes of the jaguar given by the children and total of frequencies for these codes are shown.

What Does the Jaguar Eat?

The children noted a total of 22 different kinds of food, classified into three main prey types: (a) domestic animals: the most frequently mentioned were cows (37%), domestic birds (15%), dogs and sheep (12%); (b) wild animals: the three most frequently mentioned were deer (32%), the white-lipped peccary (8%), and rabbit (7%); and (c) other types of prey: humans (22%) and meat in general, represented by images of lumps of meat (13%; Figures 8 and 9).

Figure 8.

Jaguar prey types mentioned by the children. Examples of domestic animals are shown in red, wild prey in green and other types of food, including humans, are shown in blue.

Figure 9.

Examples of drawings showing jaguars’ features as well as the type of food the children believe they consume. Drawings (a), (b), and (d) depict the jaguar eating livestock, and drawing (c) shows a human as food.

The Jaguar as a Part of the Surroundings

From the age of 9 upwards, the number of times children mentioned jaguars increased, and their drawings were also more detailed. This is due to the physical and mental growth of the children and how their motor and sensory capacities increase as they grow older. Furthermore, interaction with their surroundings increases with age and contributes to the process of knowledge development (Barraza, 1999; Piaget & Inhelder, 1997; Serulnikov & Suárez, 2003). In the context of this study, the images most often drawn by the oldest children can also be related to the fact that children 9 years and older already accompany their parents into the jungle during their productive activities (agriculture, tending to livestock, or forestry). Older children thus have had greater contact with biodiversity and are more aware of the problem of livestock predation by the jaguar. Campos, Nates, and Lindemannn-Matthies (2013) suggest that environmental knowledge is directly related to experience and the use of natural resources, as well as dependency on these resources and the extent to which people interact with the environment. Furthermore, even in these rural communities, most of the families have open and cable television, which implies a greater access and exposure to information such as natural history programs.

The Jaguar as a Dangerous Animal

Perceptions of the danger associated with the jaguar that were demonstrated by a proportion of the children may be linked to their awareness of the predation of livestock and domestic animals, since livestock represents an important part of their families’ economic income, and the subject is openly discussed in their family circle (Peña-Mondragón et al., 2016). Conflict between livestock production and the jaguar directly impacts on the children’s family circles. For them, it is common to hear their parents blaming the jaguar for eating an animal from their herds of livestock as is evident from the comments made by some children. For example: “The jaguar attack the livestock … In my uncle’s pasture a cow was eaten and it had its whole chest eaten; … only the head and skin were left, everything else was eaten.” Another child said: “Leave a cow out and the tiger will eat it.” Likewise, the children raised a fear that the jaguar can also eat people and is thus a direct danger to themselves and their families. These perceptions of danger reflect the fact that in the study area, there have recently (last 5 years) been cases of livestock predation by the jaguar. However, there is no record of a jaguar attacking a human in the communities that were the focus of this study.

In a study of children’s attitudes toward spiders and bats, Prokop and Tunnicliffe (2008) found that the more myths there were circulating, the more negative were children perceptions and attitudes toward them. This has also been demonstrated with wolves worldwide. In the communities where we conducted our study, it is likely that such myths exist and that they feed negative perceptions toward the jaguar as has been recorded in other sites where this species is found in Mexico (Álvarez et al., 2015; Peña-Mondragón, 2011).

Knowledge of the Jaguar

The children were aware of the basic appearance of the jaguar (in that it is yellow with rosettes), which indicates a basic level of knowledge of the species. While possible, it is rare to see a jaguar in the wild. It is therefore probable that the children are aware of them for other reasons. In their communities, the jaguars are hunted, and the children may therefore have had contact with the corpses and pelts of the dead animals. Likewise, they listen to adults talking about the jaguar and have access to photos and images of the species in the mass communication media. Some said that they have had jaguar cubs in their houses that were subsequently released: according to some of the children, it is common to have wild animals as pets (Bocanegra, Berny, Ocampo, & del Valle, 2011; Gil & Guiascón, 2015).

The Jaguar’s Diet

The jaguar’s diet comprises a variety of species throughout its distribution in Mexico, including the collared and white-lipped peccary, the armadillo, the white-tailed deer, the red brocket, and the badger (Aranda, 1993; Núñez, Miller, & Lindzey, 2002; Ortega-Huerta & Medley, 1999; Rosas-Rosas, Bender, & Valdez, 2008). Livestock is present in parts of its distribution and is also commonly considered part of the jaguar’s diet. Given that Jaguar predation on livestock, particularly cows and sheep, has already been reported in our study sites (Amador-Alcalá et al., 2013; Peña-Mondragón et al., 2016), it is no surprise that the children reported that domestic animals form part of the jaguar’s diet.

It is important to highlight that, despite the fact that there are no documented cases of attacks on people in Mexico, some children portrayed humans as jaguar’s prey. These portrayals may themselves be perpetuating and intensifying perceptions of jaguars as dangerous. However, there have been reports of such attacks in Brazil (Neto, Neto, & Haddad, 2011), which is a reason that an attack can never be discounted and contingency plans should be created and maintained by environmental and public health authorities.

The consumption of livestock and the sense of potential attack on human beings are aspects of children’s perceptions which need attention because the children may grow up with perceptions of the jaguar as dangerous and harmful which could lead to poor environmental decisions in the future.