Heart of the Jaguar The Extraordinary Conservation Effort to Save the Americas' Legendary Cat

– An Outside magazine Best Science Book of 2025
– One of Colorado Public Radio's Books We Love in 2025
– One of Mongabay's 10 notable books on conservation and the environment published in 2025

"A love letter to nature [...] [Heart of the Jaguar] honors the conservationists who are fighting to save them."
– Angela Seidler, Arizona Daily Star

"Thrilling [...] [Heart of the Jaguar] chronicles the endeavors of conservationists who have dedicated their lives to saving the jaguar."
– Explorers Journal

"Well-told and worth telling [...] An engrossing story of adventure, science and the efforts of dedicated conservationists and individuals working against great odds to save the jaguar from extinction."
– Rambles.com

"Campbell does an outstanding job of honoring [Alan Rabinowitz's] work while echoing his travels and telling the story of the jaguar and the dedicated people, himself included, still determined to protect it."
– Colleen Mondor, Booklist

"The phrase charismatic megafauna gets tossed around too often, but when it comes to the jaguar – the greatest and most mesmerizing cat in all the Americas – the term is supremely justified. James Campbell has gamely ventured far and wide, enduring adversities matched only by his deep passion for his subject. Readers will love this wild story of a talismanic species that, despite an ever-encroaching modern world, has always found the audacity to survive."
– Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of The Wide Wide Sea

"In this deeply researched, courageously reported book, James Campbell journeys from tropical rainforests to southwestern deserts in the footsteps of a legendary cat. Heart of the Jaguar is an enthralling homage to one of the Western Hemisphere's most storied, elusive carnivores – and the fearless people committed to preserving wildness on an ever-shrinking planet."
– Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings and Eager

"An important and engaging chronicle of a magnificent, charismatic species, Heart of the Jaguar gives us a glimpse into the rarified world of big cat conservation and its colorful champions who, possessed by the spirit of the wild, venture right up to the line of both sanity and death in their efforts to protect a creature of almost mythical power."
– Tucker Malarkey, author of Stronghold: One Man's Quest to Save the World's Wild Salmon

"In a journalistic tour de force, James Campbell goes on the trail of the jaguar and introduces us to the remarkable animal biologists trying to save these big cats from extinction. Through Campbell's eye and spellbinding prose we experience the elusive big cat's stunning habitat, its beauty, might, and intelligence, and its mesmerizing aura. And most crucially, Campbell convinces that the difficult task of saving the jaguar is a must. Heart of the Jaguar is a worthy adventure not to be missed."
– Dean King, author of Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite and Sufferings in Africa

"Both inspiring and gripping, James Campbell's Heart of the Jaguar artfully weaves together the life of famed jaguar researcher Alan Rabinowitz, a passionate, complex man, with the story of the jaguar itself – mysterious, beautiful, majestic, and, of course, threatened. To hike into jaguar habitat in various countries and on different continents with Campbell is to experience not just adventure, sorrow, and hope, but something so many of us crave and miss these days: the thrill of raw wildness."
– David Gessner, author of All the Wild That Remains and Return of the Osprey

"If I was asked to recommend only one book on the current state of charismatic species in our world it would be Heart of the Jaguar. This is a book which encompasses the awe and joy of human encounters but also the degrading politics of greed and development. China has diminished the Tiger in Asia and has now come for the Jaguar's skin, organs and its very heart, leaving its future hanging in the balance. Still with all the passion and commitment the scientists and stakeholders are giving to the race for survival, I'm going to bet on the Jaguar. This book is a great read. "
– Jane Alexander