What is the Jaguarthon?

Every 9-13 days, a jaguar is killed in Guyana as it comes into contact with cattle farmers, gold miners, or someone engaged in similar economic activity. Humans kill wild cats for many reasons, a common one being retaliation for a wild cat killing a domestic animal. Invariably, people bring longstanding fears, sometimes passed down from one generation to another or acquired from stories of conflict in other areas of the world, country, or within a locale, into their interactions with a wild cat. Consequently, when a wild cat kills or injures a cow or dog, people react by finding ways to kill or remove the offending cat from their area. In these situations, people hardly take a step back to think through alternatives to killing wild cats or to study the circumstances that may have led to conflict in the first place.

The Jaguarthon series of runs aims to change how people perceive wild cats and wildlife on the whole, while simultaneously acknowledging that the well-being of wildlife is intricately linked to that of humans.

The Jaguarthon, an official Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWCMC) activity, aims to change how people think about human-wildlife interactions and transform the public's understanding of wildlife's role in Guyanese life. The series of Jaguarthon runs and post-run conversations and interactions emphasize the importance of wild cats, including jaguars, pumas, and other wildlife, to human well-being. The 2025-2026 series will be completed on November 30, 2025 and March 8-18, 2026. Details on the 2026 runs are coming soon. Each run engages local people in Guyana, including high schoolers, local conservation leaders, and people interested in protecting human well-being. Beyond human-wildlife interactions, the runs also engage entities and agencies in Guyana involved in tackling challenges related to human health, including domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and safeguarding the welfare of women and children. During the run participants will engage in conversations about the jaguar and other wildlife

Why the Jaguarthon?

How It Works

The Jaguarthon series for 2025 will be combined with a series in 2026. On November 30th, 2025, we will run in Georgetown. In 2026, we will run a full marathon in each of Guyana's 10 regions in eleven days (please see the tentative schedule in the Register to Participate tab. In each run, participants will be accompanied by GWCMC personnel and Dr. Anthony Cummings, a Guyanese human-wildlife interactions researcher and amateur marathoner, who will engage participants on the importance of wild cats and wildlife while they run. The distance for the Georgetown run in 2025 is approximately 13 miles, and participants can sign up to run (or walk) any distance including one mile, or more along the run's course. We request that you identify yourself to our personnel on the day of the run who will direct you to the approximate location to join the run. When Dr. Cummings gets to your location, you will join him and engage in a conversation on jaguars and other wildlife on the run.

In 2026 at each Run Location we are inviting participants who will run at least one mile with Dr. Cummings along the 26.2 miles course (exact run paths are coming soon). We will also include training plans to help participants enjoy their running. At the end of each run Dr. Cummings and others will engage the attendees in conversations aimed at enhancing our collective understanding of the importance of Guyana's wildlife. The theme for the 2025 - 2026 runs is "Running For The Jaguar and Us." We will engage in activities and conversations that connect human well-being to that of Guyana's wildlife. Come run with us!