I had no idea at first where even Belize was when he first told me. So I went down. Now catching jaguars wasn't easy. I didn't know how at first. The first time I built wooden traps two-by-fours, I actually caught a black jaguar. It chewed and busted out of my two-by-four traps. Later I learnt from the Mennonites how to build an iron rebar trap. I captured jaguars, radio-collared them, learned how to drug, back then we didn't have vets showing us any of this, which wasn't good.
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It was very hit or miss. I mean, I used safe drugs but jaguars weren't always fully asleep. This was difficult, it was dangerous and it was great. It was my life. This was what I was meant for. One of the things which I noticed right away, in the early days is how jaguars have a voice.
How they do talk, they communicate with incredible amounts of different signals, scratches, scrapes, fecal deposits, urine, feces in the scrape, urine in the scrape, feces next to the scrape, they have a whole language of how they communicate. And I could see jaguars probably have the most powerful jaws of any cat in the world. Now that's been proven that jaguars per pound of animal have the strongest jaws of any cat in the world, along with Clouded Leopards. These are massively muscled, powerful jaws. But the most incredible thing is what they do with that.
Jaguars kill unlike any other cat. All the other big cats go for the soft, soft tissue, go for the throat, go for the underbelly. Jaguars never do, unless they miss. Jaguars go for the skull. Jaguars go for bone. If it's small enough they will get its skull and puncture the canines into the skull. If it's too big, like a 2,pound bull, it goes for the spinal vertebrae. And punctures those canines into the vertebrae and snaps its neck. Takes animals down quick. It's a vicious, quick killer. Eventually what I was to realize, the European jaguar that had gone extinct had never gone extinct.
It had travelled over into the New World. And the jaguar of the Pleistocene, bigger, stronger had morphed into to a smaller, more efficient predator. Short limbs, low to the ground, low center of gravity, this animal capable of eating anything and everything, capable of taking down prey with a single bite or chewing gently on a small bird or an armadillo.
Its size was perfect. Its structure was perfect, I asked George Schaller and the New York Zoological Society if I could stay longer and I set up the world's first Jaguar Preserve, which ended being through no design of mine the first of all of the reserves in Belize, which is now their number one economic import. But the most important thing was this could give jobs to the Mayans who had been killing jaguars, now they were employed to protect jaguar.
By the end of the 20th century the Jaguar Preserve had taken off. Eco-tourism was booming but it didn't seem to relate to the jaguar. The way people treated jaguars and other animals, the way people viewed them was still as a recreational outlet. Maybe they didn't kill them, so we played with them instead. In , I called together all the world's jaguar experts at a meeting in Mexico. The point was, it wasn't many, it was less than 25 people.
The point was to try to get all the knowledge of what we knew about jaguars. Where did jaguars live to our knowledge at that time? Places where we knew jaguars lived and bred. By later in it went up to almost a The point was to do triage. That was the word of the time. Let's take limited funding and figure out what we can save in different kinds of habitat types. So save just the highest priority jaguar populations in different kinds of systems. At this meeting there were a group of geneticists.
We were gonna use DNA and figure out how many races of jaguar there really were. I'm not even sure they knew what they were saying. The jaguar that roamed in Northern Mexico up to the Southwest US, was the same jaguar as that in the neotropics of Central America, was the same jaguar as the pound animal of the Pantanal in Brazil. There was no other large carnivore in the world, still is not What it meant is that these places where we thought were outside of jaguar range it was all important.
Forget triage this was the animal of the Pleistocene, when faced with any kind of adversity, it moves. It moves until it finds what it has to find to survive. This was the beginning of what we call the Jaguar Corridor Initiative. We were working on the premise that 50 percent of historic jaguar range was gone.
But the permeability model showed that over 80 percent of jaguar range, while jaguars might not be able to live through all of it, can actually move through 80 percent of their historic range. Still in this day we're working on 4. That's what has to be saved to save the jaguar. So we trained local people on how to do interview surveys. We trained local teams on how to set up camera traps. We trained ranchers and farmers on how to, how to identify and pick up and collect jaguar feces. And we trained dogs, usually drug sniffing dogs on how to only sniff out jaguar feces.
Sometimes they mess up and it will be some other feces, but usually only jaguar feces. Then came all the hard part. Fifteen years in the making. Country by country, we would go and do the genetic research, it would show us that the corridor did exist. Now this is an interesting thing. Our model ended up showing us breaks in the corridor, based on what we knew about jaguars.
Yet the genetics would say that there's no breaks. Somehow jaguars are getting across. One of the most interesting areas was that right north of San Pedro de Sula in Honduras. And if most of you read the newspapers, you'll know that that's the murder capital of the world because of drugs.
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Now that showed up as a break in the jaguar corridor. But yet the genetics said it wasn't. So I hopped on a plane and went to San Pedro de Sula. And it turns out that right outside of the town of this city, there is a low mountain range. And that mountain range is where the drug labs are.
It's where murders happen. Local people don't go up in there. They're afraid they'd get killed. We spoke to some local people, we got the permission, they accompanied us and we went up in there. And there are jaguars roaming through there. The jaguars can take advantage of that kind of thing. So these small patches, which we would have ignored and would've gotten completely cut down are now part of the jaguar corridor and they're part of what we're trying to protect. Once we have the corridor definitely mapped out of where jaguars truly are walking and we can prove it, we then go to the government.
Once it gets signed into law that means it's in the country's computer system. Anybody wanting to do the development in the country, having to do an environmental impact statement, it then pops up if it's coming through the jaguar corridor. I assumed like many do that the jaguar cultural corridor was dead and gone long ago. Now that's true, looking at what used to be but as I also learned, about the jaguar, what the animal was capable of, so I also learned that the jaguar cultural corridor had not disappeared, it wasn't dead.
Jaguars are still parts of ceremony, jaguar culture is still taught now to school children, they've never gone away. But what has been so interesting, there are many places where the jaguars don't exist anymore, where they are gone. The Mayans had a saying that when a jaguar dies, a star is lost from the sky. In these places where the jaguar was gone, their sky was dark They want jaguars back. But they're gone, usually forever.
We all have a voice but that voice has to be heard. Very anti-climactic you could say: It just cut off the scenes so fast that it was hard to follow without smooth transitions. So I would have given the first novella 4 stars and the second one 2 stars, hence the 3 star rating. I'm going to read the third book in the series to hope it gets better. But if the third is like the second, it will be the last book I read in the series. Mar 09, Susan rated it it was amazing Shelves: I have read every book in 3 different Christine Feehan series, and she has yet to disappoint.
The "Leopard People" series is every bit as good as her other series'. Feehan is a master of creating new and interesting characters and societies. In Fever , we discover the race of shape-shifting leopard-people, and learn all about their history and customs. The details are intricate and Feehan's descriptions of life within the rainforests of Borneo is simply breathtaking.
The leopard-people stories fo I have read every book in 3 different Christine Feehan series, and she has yet to disappoint. The leopard-people stories follow the same basic format as Feehan's other series': Byronic hero meets his match in a spunky, sexy heroine. But let's face it, Feehan is an expert at writing these types of stories, and has great skill in making each of her stories fresh and new. Fever offers captivating and entertaining stories, guaranteed to beguile and enthrall the reader.
I am very excited to continue reading this series and to find out more about the leopard-people.
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May 08, Toni rated it it was amazing Shelves: Just finished book one The Awakeing in Christine's Leopard series and found it to be a wonderful book. Just enough mystery to keep it interesting along with some very erotic sex. Nothing very graphic but hot all the same. Just starting Book Two Wild Rain. Longer book but I think just as unput downable. Wild Rain was fantastic.
So engaging that I could not stop reading unti I finished. Rachel and Rio's story was hot and steamy and riviting. A great book which leaves me with the hope she is writing Just finished book one The Awakeing in Christine's Leopard series and found it to be a wonderful book. A great book which leaves me with the hope she is writing a third story.
Would love to know what happens with Elijah, Rachel's brother. Different from other of Christine's books but just as well written. Dec 24, Kathrynn rated it really liked it Shelves: This kinda chapped my behind. For whatever reason this author's books started coming out with different covers and names. This is one of them. This is a reissue of Leopard Series book 1! She has reissues, plugged as all new and a lot of her current short stories remixed with other authors and put in a new book, but the same short stories.
Wild Rain They are both This kinda chapped my behind. Wild Rain They are both good stories! Aug 29, Ally rated it really liked it Shelves: I have to admit I am a huge Ms Feehan fan and have worked my way round all her previous series and really loved these two stories. Apr 14, Tasneem rated it it was ok Shelves: This is interesting as a series, but I just find some of her ethnic and racial stereotyping contentious. I find the fact that in these tropical places there are very few non-white characters.
May 15, Nightwitch rated it it was ok Shelves: Overwrought nineties prose, some really over-the-top sex scenes within half a page of the heroine's getting ready to lose her v-card the hero is "sensually" dripping mango juice all over her, which frankly just sounds uncomfortable and odd racial dynamics, in that we have a village of shapeshifters living in the middle of the Central American jungle This is something I've been finding interesting with paranormal romances: How does that work?
I can manage the necessary suspension of disbelief when they're already in the US or some secondary location they, uh, moved Additionally, the hero and his buddies spend all their time fighting sun bear poachers, which Heavy on sensible plot these books are not, but my understanding is that's kind of par for the course with Christine Feehan's books. Me Tarzan, you Jane. The overwrought writing style and the flimsy plot annoyed me so I chose not to continue. Jun 01, Megan rated it it was amazing. I've been meaning to read this series for a while and finally got the chance.
I found myself immersed in both stories and loved getting to know the characters.
They are all Leopard people which was a term coined by Natives of people who are shifters with human DNA and leopards just happen to be the creature that they shift into. There were plenty of steamy scenes, adven I've been meaning to read this series for a while and finally got the chance. There were plenty of steamy scenes, adventure, humor, a beautiful version of soul mates, and magic which was all spun in a unique way that only Christine can tell.
I can't wait to read more in the series and I highly recommend it! Jan 01, Catherine Iriarte rated it liked it. The first story in this book "The Awakening". Was very entertaining and kept me interested throughout, however, I felt the book ended abruptly. Since it kept my interest, I continued reading into the second book "Wild Rain". This story was written much better than the first.
I had much more fun reading it than the first and the ending was an appropriate one. I look forward to reading more about the Leopard People. May 10, Letticia rated it it was amazing Shelves: She did it again, I love this new series! Jun 08, Deborah D. Two stories, one good I go for Rio's story, a wounded alpha feline Got it in spades and lust. Love the clouded leopards as characters. May 19, Nicole Shafer rated it liked it. A beautiful love story by one of the best writers. Thank you, Christine Feehan.
Love all of your books. Apr 11, Kathy rated it liked it Shelves: Book 1 - The Awakening Brandt has lived his whole life in the community, maintaining Maggie's house Brandt has tracked her down, and tempted her with her jungle inheritance to return now that her adopted mother has passed. And they are known to one another She is in the time of her Han Vol Dan - the time of change Book 2 - Wild Rain Rachel's of the South American jungles, a shifter, though she doesn't know about it Elijah does much abhorrant to protect her He becomes more restrictive towards Rachel Rio has been banished from the community because he killed the poacher who killed his mother And Rio's community accepts him again, and they are married This is the second time I am reading this book.
I love Christine Feehan but I have to be honest and say that this series is not one of my favorites. There are two stories in this book, which "kick off" the series. The Awakening introduces the world of the Leopard People that live in the Borneo rain forests and where Maggie has been inherited a home in the jungle, meets Brandt, a shapeshifter, who has been waiting for her return for a very long time. Rather a short story - around 90 pages - filled This is the second time I am reading this book.
Rather a short story - around 90 pages - filled with tension and some sexy and erotic scenes. Wild Rain was for me a much better and longer story…. From the first moment they meet — wow…. I loved the setting and the descriptions were extremely well-written….. We are also given a bit of history of the leopard people, their lifestyle and their habitat. Initially I wanted to give this book a 3 star review because - -a few scenes dragged on for far too long that I found myself skipping a few pages quite a few times - the sex scenes were also somewhat drawn-out and repetitive But……….
I hope he gets his book too!!!!!!!! So for that I give it a 4 star!!!!! Mar 07, Patricia rated it it was ok Shelves: Da war ich noch nie. Anstatt die Handlung spannend zu gestalten, wurde es einfach irgendwann langweilig.
ES Fehlte das Drama zwischen dem Liebespaar. Nennt mich altmodisch, aber ich empfand das Alles als zu glatt. Sie kamen, sahen und liebten einander. Nach all dem pos. Racheal war mir relativ unsympathisch. Wenn mir fast mein Bein abgerissen wird, dann reagiere ich etwas anders. Gott, ich hasse diese Rollen. I guess I felt like this story could have been halved and been just as interesting. Jan 09, Abby Min rated it it was amazing. There once was a myth about two people finding each other and committing to one another. But there weren't normal people. They where known as leopard people.
Leopard people are nor human, nor leopard. They can shift on command. Leopard people live in a village and they have a very high council. What the council says goes The two found one another by chance but they soon became well known throughout the village. The male who found the love of his life. But they soon found out that she was the There once was a myth about two people finding each other and committing to one another. But they soon found out that she was the same as him. She saved his life and he saved hers. They knew they where destined. Now in the modern day Rachel travels to the village with a church group when a storm hits.
They where in a boat at the time and she went overboard. She was pulled down the river but made it out. That was a miracle. The night air was cold and strong.
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She needed a place to stay. She found a hut in the middle of the forest and thought it was for explorers to stay in when they where exploring. But she couldn't have been more wrong. She was attacked but a cloud leopard. The man that was with the leopards thought she was out to kill him. He took her under his paw and looked after her savaged leg. His name was Rio. They both knew they where meant to be together.
But through all the hard times and her shift could their relationship be strong enough to hold Find out by reading: Fever by Christine Feehan I loved this book and I am about to start on the sequel. I loved the idea of leopard people and the intense love between the couples.
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I highly recommend it May 13, Maria rated it really liked it Shelves: Fever is a two in one book and I think that is good. Sometimes the Heroine, Maggie, and the Hero, Brandt, start talking about things I havent read about before and that makes me a bit annoyed. But all in all its a sweet story about HEA.
The next novel, Wild Rain, is longer and therefore its better. Ms Feehan has time to develop the characters and the background story about the leopard p Fever is a two in one book and I think that is good. Ms Feehan has time to develop the characters and the background story about the leopard people.
I have always known that Christine Feehan could write good milieu scenes but in this story it got even better. I have had the fortune to visit the Borneo Rain forest so in this book I actually could smell and hear the jungle and that made the story even more exciting fore me.
I enjoyed both stories very much! Feehan's writing is fluid, beautiful and very compelling, and I loved her setting the rainforest of Borneo. It's such a different setting compared to other books in this genre, and the way she writes makes you feel like you are actually in the rainforest. You'll hear the cries of the birds and monke "Fever" is the first entry in Christinen Feehan's Leopard People series, and contains both the short story "The Awakening" and the complete novel "Wild Rain".
You'll hear the cries of the birds and monkeys and the patter of rain on the leaves. It's a beautiful and very sensual story, and I really liked it. In fact, I wouldn't have minded if it had been a bit longer! Rachael and Rio are really interesting characters, and I liked their interaction with each other.
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There was such a sweetness to them as a couple. A word of warning for the faint of heart these are probably the hottest stories I have ever read, and they both contain a lot of very explicit love scenes. Normally I would call a book like this oversexed, but oddly enough I didn't mind at all with this one. That's probably because those scenes are written in a way that is beautiful and sensual, and never coarse or offensive. Nov 08, Mary rated it liked it Shelves: Much like the Dark series - Feehan created another "species" that is not human and follows its own laws.
This time she has leopard shape shifters. In this book are The Awakening and Wild Rain. The Awakening is a novella and part 1.