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Cattle ranching is big business in southwestern Brazil.
But most ranchers are losing money because of low prices for beef and they have no tolerance for anything that causes more loss, especially jaguars. Cowhands on ranches in the area say jaguars are always killing calves. Some say the only answer is to eliminate the wildest cats, the largest in the Americas. An endangered species threatened by loss of habitat and illegal hunting, jaguars are larger in the Pantanal than anywhere else. But their numbers are declining almost everywhere they still survive, except in this cattle region, where there are so many jaguars they are a problem for ranchers.