Alan Rabinowitz

My hero is Alan Rabinowitz who started the first ever jaguar preserve. He got his PhD from the University of Tennessee in wildlife ecology. But he didn’t want a behind the desk all day job. He wanted to go out and see the world and what he could help do.

One day one of his professors, Dr. Michael Pelton from the university, asked to go on a hike with him in the Rocky Mountains. After the hike he saw how much he loved the wildlife. So he asked him if he want to go to Belize to see what the situation was with the jaguars. He said yes he would go to Belize.

Then in 1979 he went to Belize and found out it was full of jaguars. So in 1980 he came back to report what he found. The Wildlife Conservation Society or WCS offered him a long term project with them to find out more on the jaguars. He said yes and was the first person to do a radio study or capture a jaguar.

He went to Cockscomb Basin in 1982 and returned in 1984. When he was there he would tranquilize a jaguar and put a radio on him to follow him and see how he acts. He was also there to see what threats they had. It was mostly Maya Indians were a big one. They would hunt them down and skin them then sell the fur for money.

Then in 1984 he got the Belize government to make Cockscomb a preserve for wild life. So it became a no hunting area and the Maya Indians were making more money protecting the Jaguars then killing them. Today it is one of the biggest wildlife preserves in Central America. Why to me he is a hero is, I love wildlife and so did he. He was kind and respected the world and everyone in it.