Recent seizures of jaguar body parts in Bolivia have prompted concern about illegal trade to China, but a detailed understanding of this emerging trade continues to be lacking. We interviewed 1,107 people in a rural area implicated in the trade, using direct and indirect questions through the Ballot Box Method (BBM) to explore the prevalence and characteristics of the illegal jaguar trade and its links to foreign demand. Jaguar trade is a common, and mostly non‐sensitive practice; 46% of respondents reported some involvement over the past 5 years. The most common behavior was owning jaguar body parts, such as skins, fat and teeth for decorative, medicinal, and cultural purposes. The most mentioned traders were Bolivian, followed by traders of Asian descent. However, regression analysis shows that the presence of traders of European descent was more significantly and positively associated with jaguar trade related behaviors, ahead of Asian descent and regional traders. Overall, jaguar trade in Bolivia has more diverse actors and drivers than seizures may suggest. Therefore, conservation interventions, in addition to targeting demand from Chinese wildlife markets, should address other foreign and domestic markets and trade chains.

The antioxidant activity of natural and semi-synthetic depsides and benzofurans—including R-(+)-usnic acid (1), dibenzoyl usnic acid (2), atranorin (3), 2,4-bis(benzoyloxy)atranorin (4), 4-O-methyl atranorin (5), decarboxythamnolic acid (6), thamnolic acid (7), and perlatolic acid (8)—was evaluated in this study. Natural compounds were isolated from selected lichen species, whilst semi-synthetic derivatives were prepared to investigate the influence of esterification and methylation on electronic properties and radical-scavenging capacity. Structural elucidation was performed using NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). Electronic and thermodynamic descriptors, including the bond dissociation energy (BDE) of the most reactive O–H group, HOMO and LUMO_r energies, the HOMO–HOMO-1 energy gap (ΔH(H-1)), polarisability, and logP, were calculated and correlated with experimentally determined antioxidant capacity using the TEAC assay. Multivariate partial least squares (PLS-1) analysis identified ΔH(H-1) and LUMO_r as the primary determinants of antioxidant activity, with BDE and ΔHf providing complementary contributions. Perlatolic acid (8) exhibited the highest radical-scavenging capacity (TEAC = 2.7), whereas R-(+)-usnic acid (1) and dibenzoyl usnic acid (2) were the least active compounds (TEAC ≈ 0.1). Antioxidant activity was found not to correlate with the number of hydroxyl groups, but rather to be governed by electronic redistribution, conjugation effects, and substituent modulation. Exclusion of the outlier decarboxythamnolic acid (6) improved model performance, explaining 79.8% of the variance in TEAC values (R²Y), with strong predictive ability (Q² = 0.724) using a single latent variable. Overall, these findings provide a robust basis for the prediction and rational design of new antioxidant compounds, highlighting the relevance of lichen-derived metabolites as structurally stable scaffolds with potential applications in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical development.

El complejo del Leopardus colocolo, según una reciente actualización taxonómica, ha sido dividido en cinco especies. Una de estas es el Leopardus braccatus conocida como gato del pantanal, distribuido en Bolivia, Brasil y Paraguay. A pesar de su distribución, esta es una especie poco estudiada. Presentamos aquí un nuevo registro de esta especie, siendo el primero en el bosque seco chiquitano, un ecosistema amenazado que previamente no se consideraba su hábitat. Este hallazgo se llevó a cabo como parte de un programa de monitoreo de felinos con cámaras trampa, donde adicionalmente seis especies de félidos fueron detectadas en un área de 41km2, lo que indica una alta diversidad de felinos en esta ecorregión. Además, se identificaron amenazas directas para el gato del pantanal, como la actividad agrícola y ganadera, los perros domésticos y la cacería ilegal. La relevancia de este nuevo registro radica en su ubicación en el límite occidental-sur de la distribución conocida para Bolivia, así también como sus características morfológicas similares a la especie L. munoai. Esto subraya la necesidad de realizar investigaciones adicionales para comprender mejor su distribución y conservación. Estudios futuros podrían explorar también las similitudes morfológicas y de distribución entre L. braccatus y L. munoai.

Una de las especies de mamíferos menos estudiadas en Bolivia es la tayra o melero (Eira barbara). En esta nota, presentamos un nuevo registro en la distribución de la especie para Bolivia, que además constituye un punto de conexión entre el bosque seco interandino y un parche del bosque tucumano-boliviano, siendo asimismo el primer reporte para el área protegida. El registro corresponde a un individuo adulto macho, encontrado muerto en La Reserva Biológica de la Cordillera de Sama en agosto de 2025, cuya muerte se atribuye principalmente a los incendios forestales de la región.