When I look at this cat I am drawn inexorably to its eyes, for within them, lies the pulsating heart of the rain forest, her name is Taboda.  Her yellow and black feline coat is uniquely textured in spots, daubs, circles, crescents and stripes, blotches and specks, wrapped with necklaces of power. Every mark a reflection of water ripples, or the falling of great leaves from the tall forests  in which she once lived.

In South America the Jaguar is endangered. As the forests shrink and roads and agriculture take over, the wildlife shrinks too. Argentina has almost no Jaguars left.  What few Jaguars remain must travel great distances to find each other, risking poachers, guns,traps or simply running out of places to find sufficient food.

This Jaguar is a lucky one, rescued from a Zoo it now lives inside another enclosure, but this enclosure is very different. The enclosure is massive, 10,000 hectares in extent, encompassing woodlands and pools, all designed by the foremost zoo experts in the world.

The location for this refuge is a remote island amidst South Americas largest freshwater marsh, Ibera, in the Corrientes province of Argentina. A more beautiful and tranquil place one cannot imagine, but only the most pristine is required for such a magnificent cat.  Over the next few years it is proposed that other Jaguars will join Taboda and with care and fortune they will breed and Argentina will have its long lost Jaguars back.

This has all been made possible by the wisdom and foresight of one man, Douglas Tompkins.  He founded the Conservation Land Trust and put the fortune he made in business, to work for wildlife conservation in South America.