In 2010, Gerardo Ceballos and a group of other researchers set out to answer a burning question: how many jaguars were there in Mexico? They knew there weren’t many. Hunting, habitat loss, conflict with cattle ranchers, and other issues had pushed the population to the brink of extinction.

The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize signed an agreement to protect and preserve the Great Mayan Forest, a 5.7 million-hectare expanse shared by the three nations. It represents the second most important natural reserve on the continent, only after the Amazon.