Join field expeditions with prestigious institutions that have a long history of ecological studies and scientific production. Get insights of the natural world that have so far been the privilege of only few scientists !

Scientists are involved in every aspect of our expeditions, from project authorship, initial planning and logistics, to study design and data analysis. No intermediate managers or operators. That means that we are truly committed with every conservation project we are inviting you to join. You are not required to have any specific skills or qualifications. Anyone can join.

Expeditions that we are currently running

We are conducting expeditions to Brazil to study Jaguars, and to the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, to study tigers. In Brazil we are involved with conservation and research for decades. In Sumatra our partner scientists from WWF and from local government organizations will ensure that you'll be part of credited and much needed research and conservation initiatives.

The Sumatran tiger expedition - 2009: 19 May – 1 June / 05 – 17 June
Join us in our effort to make a difference in the conservation of one of the most endangered tiger lineages in the world, and the only one still inhabiting an island. Come to this exotic and nearly unknown paradise.
Expedition fee is £ 600 GBP (900 USD) for 6 days (beginner level), or £ 1,000 (1,800 USD) for 12 days

The Atlantic Forest jaguar expedition - 2009: 19– 31 August / 02 – 14 September
The jaguar is vanishing from the Atlantic forest, come make a difference while enjoying a great experience in this luxurious rainforest unbelievably near urbanized centers.
Expedition fee is £ 300 (450 USD) for 6 days (beginner level), and £ 600 (1,074 USD) for 12 days

Group sizes and length of participation

Group sizes will vary but we estipulate a maximum of 10-12 people per group. Length of participation may vary from 6 to 12 days. We split into two levels of experience gained, beginner level up to 6 days, and advance level up to 12 days. Beginner level participants will receive basic research training and will work basically around Base Camp, installing camera-traps (remote cameras automatically triggered by animal movements), finding and mapping survey routes. Those that wish to stay longer will go to advanced level, when participants go for overnight camps or other searches further from base camp. An example of overnight camp would be to travel by boat to a distant island looking for jaguars in areas where they have not been surveyed yet, and in the case of the tiger study, to join The Tiger Patrol Unit and visit old tribal villages, or visit WWF's Base Camp to survey their study area and exchange information and experience.

Full expedition document (tiger and/or jaguar project)

Write to us and ask for the full expedition document ! We'll be glad to hear you are interested to learn more about one of our expeditions. The expedition document has the complete project information, with detailed maps, base camp description, flight information, meeting location, safety procedures, and so on. Click here to send an e-mail message asking for the full expedition document. Also browse below to see some further details.

The jaguar in the Atlantic Broadleaf Forest of Brazil

This expedition is the continuation of a ground-breaking project that begun in 2005 aiming the conservation of the Atlantic forest jaguar. The research so far has resulted in two reports, a presentation at an international conference, one per-reviewed publication in a periodic journal, and participation in two action plans.

The Atlantic forest jaguar is isolated into small sub-populations and from larger continental populations. If directed efforts are not allocated immediately to its conservation it will no longer be able to persist in this ecosystem. We’ll be studying in the ‘Serra do Mar’ mountain range, the most important site for jaguar conservation within the Atlantic broadleaved forest.

The study site is known for its outstanding beauty, with densely forested mountain ranges and mangrove lowlands reaching the Atlantic ocean. Data collected by the expedition will form the basis for the management and protection of the jaguar and its habitats within this highly threatened ecosystem.

Previous expeditions

The 2006 and 2007 expedition to the Atlantic forest were a superb experience for everyone. Unlike a regular tour, people that joinned the expedition were considered as research collaborators once they had been trained, facing truly new, unnexpected challenges, such as exploration of new research areas and base camps that none of us had been before. Those that dared, managed to navigate through the forest and rivers by their own, in small groups, without the presence of a local guide. The expeditions re-confirmed the presence of jaguar in the Serra do Mar mountain range and estuarine areas near it.

The situation of the jaguar population in the Atlantic Forest is a reason of concern, as less than 200 animals has been estimated to persist, due to the presence of intensive human occupation in the area. The following picture is a confirmation of their presence, as it was their vocalization, heard during the night while we were in our tents. One team member was certain a jaguar was nearby, which kept her awake until daylight !

Jaguar track found in the expedition area.
The pen is 14,5 cm wide.

Ocelot photographed by a camera-trap
during an expedition.

Tents installed over wooden plataforms in the forest

N A T I O N A L  E X P E D I T I O N S

Local students participation on national expeditions

Atlantic Broadleaf Forest

In the july-august period of 2006, 2007, and 2008 Projeto Puma took local teams to the forests of the Guaratuba Bay to explore its trails and find out about its wildlife. Local students, biologists, and people with diverse background had a chance to participate in this research expedition.

Araucaria Forest and Savanna

The Araucaria forest is unique, consisting of dominant coniferous threes just like in temperate zones of Europe and North America. In the study area it is found interspersed with Savanna, providing a wide view and a unique fauna. It is puma territory, as well home of the threatened southern pampas deer, Ozotocerus bezoarticus.

Sumatran tiger

The tiger in the island of Sumatra, Indonesia: the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape

Where is Sumatra? it is located southern to India and Malaysia, in the indonesian archipelago, which also includes Borneo, Java, and Bali

The expedition will last for 12 days. Housing, food, and transportation are included from the day the expedition begins. The expedition fee do not including airfare rates. Roundtrip airfare rates to the meeting location in Sumatra will vary from about 700 GBP (from LA) to 800 GBP (from London). Detailed information on the expedition itinerary can be found in the expedition document. To receive the expedition document, please write to us.

Background information

We are currently in contact with WWF Indonesia and the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA) to join them in their research in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park (BTNP), south Sumatra. Besides the tiger, the BTNP harbour clouded leopards, leopard cats, wild dogs, wild pigs, sun bears, malayan tapirs, reintroduced orang-utans, gibons, elephants, and many other mammals.
download tiger report (pdf)

The map above displays Tiger Conservation Landscapes (TCLs) in Sumatra, highlighting the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape (TCL 07), 7,106 km2, encompassing a National Park (NP) with same name, 1,300 km2 in size. This TCL is considered a Global Priority for tiger conservation, which are those TCL with the 'highest probability of tiger persistence over the long term' (Sanderson et al., 2006).
Bukit Tigapuluh NP home page

Issues on tiger conservation

Conservation is only effective if local communities participate. The attractive prices of tiger parts and the threat it represent to livehoods, however, give little reason for local people to protect it. A study conducted by the Sumatran Tiger Project in Way Kambas National has identified that neighbouring villagers perceive few benefits from the park, which may as well represent the feeling of locals toward tiger conservation elsewhere in Sumatra, reporting that ‘unless issues are addressed, conflicts between the park and villagers are likely to escalate and undermine efforts to protect southeast Sumatra’s last tigers’ (Nyhus et al., 1999). In fact, tiger poaching has not shown signs of reduction in Sumatra (Shepherd and Magnus, 2004), and small populations of tigers, which are the majority in Sumatra, have been demonstrated to be vulnerable even if few individuals are removed each year (Linkie et al., 2006).

Similarly, density of tigers have been shown to be positively related to that of their prey (Karanth and Stith, 1999), and prey decline may often be a factor more important than direct persecution in driving tiger populations to extinction (Karanth et al., 2004). Effective tiger conservation strategies need thus to take into account the conservation of tiger's prey. Local communities must somehow perceive benefits for protection of tiger's prey.

Our expeditions attempt to address this conservation issues by promoting research and ecoturism at the same time, so that important data is acquired while demonstrating to locals that the presence of species may bring socio-economic benefits from ecotourism.

Karanth, K. U. and B. M. Stith. 1999. Prey depletion as determinant of tiger population viability. Pp. 100-113 in Riding the tiger – tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes (J. Seindensticker, S. Christie, P. Jackson, eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Karanth, K. U.; Nichols, J.D.; Kumar N.S.; Link, W.A.; Hines, J.E. 2004. Tigers and their prey: Predicting carnivore densities from prey abundance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 101 (14): 4854-4858.

Linkie, M.; Chapron, G.; Martyr, D.J.; Holden, J.; Leader-Williams, N. 2006. Assessing the viability of tiger subpopulations in a fragmented landscape. Journal of Applied Ecology 43: 576–586.

Nyhus, P.J., Sumianto and Tilson, R. 1999. The tiger – human dimension in southeast Sumatra. Pp 144-145 in Riding the tiger – tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes (Seindesticker J., Christie S., Jackson P., eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Sanderson, E; Forrest, J.; Loucks, C.; Ginsberg, J.; Dinerstein, E.; Seindesticker, J.; Leimgruber, P.; Songer, M.; Heydlauff, A.; O'Brien, T.; Bryja, G.; Wikramanayake, E.; Klenzendorf, S. 2006. Setting Priorities for the Conservation and Recovery of Wild Tigers: 2005–2015. WCS, WWF, SMITHONIAN, STF. New York – Washington, D.C 206pp. Download. 22,7 MB.

Shepherd, C.R. and Magnus, N. 2004. Nowhere to hide: The trade in Sumatran Tiger. TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. 108pp. Download. 935 Kb.

CONTACT info@projeto-puma.org