Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
April 2003
Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from Brazil.
The denomination is 50 Reais and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-246c.
The note is not dated but has been issued from (1994 to present).
-Donated_f.jpg)
(obverse)
The banknote is dark brown and red-brown on multicolored under print.
Sculpture of the Republic is at
center right.
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The following information
was obtained from:
http://www.geographia.com/brazil/brazihistory.htm
Brazil
(ca. 1500 to Present)
The Portuguese were the first European settlers to arrive in the area, led by
adventurous Pedro Cabral, who began the colonial period in 1500. The Portuguese
reportedly found native Indians numbering around seven million. Most tribes were
peripatetic, with only limited agriculture and temporary dwellings, although
villages often had as many as 5000 inhabitants. Cultural life appears to have
been richly developed, although both tribal warfare and cannibalism were
ubiquitous. The few remaining traces of Brazil's Indian tribes reveal little of
their lifestyle, unlike the evidence from other Andean tribes. Today, fewer than
200,000 of Brazil's indigenous people survive, most of whom inhabit the jungle
areas.
Other Portuguese explorers followed Cabral, in search of valuable goods for
European trade but also for unsettled land and the opportunity to escape poverty
in Portugal itself. The only item of value they discovered was the pau do
brasil (brazil wood tree) from which they created red dye. Unlike the colonizing
philosophy of the Spanish, the Portuguese in Brazil were much less focused at
first on conquering, controlling, and developing the country. Most were
impoverished sailors, who were far more interested in profitable trade and
subsistence agriculture than in territorial expansion. The country's interior
remained unexplored.
Nonetheless, sugar soon came to Brazil, and with it came imported slaves. To a
degree unequaled in most of the American colonies, the Portuguese settlers
frequently intermarried with both the Indians and the African slaves, and there
were also mixed marriages between the Africans and Indians. As a result,
Brazil's population is intermingled to a degree that is unseen elsewhere. Most
Brazilians possess some combination of European, African, Amerindian, Asian, and
Middle Eastern lineage, and this multiplicity of cultural legacies is a notable
feature of current Brazilian culture.
The move to open the country's interior coincided with the discovery in the
1690s of gold in the south-central part of the country. The country's gold
deposits didn't pan out, however, and by the close of the 18th century the
country's focus had returned to the coastal agricultural regions. In 1807, as
Napoleon Bonaparte closed in on Portugal's capital city of Lisbon, the Prince
Regent shipped himself off to Brazil. Once there, Dom Joao established the
colony as the capital of his empire. By 1821 things in Europe had cooled down
sufficiently that Dom Joao could return to Lisbon, and he left his son Dom
Pedro I in charge of Brazil. When the king attempted the following year to
return Brazil to subordinate status as a colony, Dom Pedro flourished his sword
and declared the country's independence from Portugal (and his own independence
from his father).
In the 19th century coffee took the place of sugar as Brazil's most important
product. The boom in coffee production brought a wave of almost one million
European immigrants, mostly Italians, and also brought about the Brazilian
republic. In 1889, the wealthy coffee magnates backed a military coup, the
emperor fled, and Brazil was no more an imperial country. The coffee planters
virtually owned the country and the government for the next thirty years, until
the worldwide depression evaporated coffee demand. For the next half century
Brazil struggled with governmental instability, military coups, and a fragile
economy. In 1989, the country enjoyed its first democratic election in almost
three decades. Unfortunately, the Brazilians made the mistake of electing
Fernando Collor de Mello. Mello's corruption did nothing to help the economy,
but his peaceful removal from office indicated at least that the country's
political and governmental structures are stable.
Brazil has the sixth largest population in the world--about 148 million
people--which has doubled in the past 30 years. Because of its size, there are
only 15 people per sq. km, concentrated mainly along the coast and in the major
cities, where two-thirds of the people now live: over 19 million in greater Sao
Paulo and 10 million in greater Rio.
The immigrant Portuguese language was greatly influenced by the numerous Indian
and African dialects they encountered, but it remains the dominant language in
Brazil today. In fact, the Brazilian dialect has become the dominant influence
in the development of the Portuguese language, for the simple reason that Brazil
has 15 times the population of Portugal and a much more dynamic linguistic
environment.
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-Donated_b.jpg)
(reverse)
An Onca Pintada (Jaguar) is at
center.
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The following
information was obtained from:
http://hazelh.best.vwh.net/html/amjaguar.html
Jaguar
"Panthera onca"
Other Names
Jaguar (French); Jaguar (German); tigre, tigre real, yaguar (Spanish); onca,
onca pintada, onca cangucu (Brazil); tig marque (French Guiana); yaguarete (Guaraní);
zac-bolay (Mayan); jaguarete (Paraguay); otorongo (Peru); penitigri (Suriname);
yaguar (Venezuelan); onca negra, yaguara pichuna, yagua-hu (black jaguars).
Geographic Range
Mexico, Central America, Peru, northern South America.
Description and Behavior
The jaguar is the largest cat of the Americas, and the only living
representative of the genus Panthera found in the New World. The jaguar's
pattern differs from that of the leopard by having larger, broken-edged rosettes
around small black spots. It has a large head and stocky build, with relatively
shorter limbs than others of its genus. Melanism is frequent in the jaguar, and
albinistic specimens are occasionally reported. Forest jaguars are not only more
frequently darker, but are also considerably smaller in size than animals which
inhabit more open areas. In central American rain forest, 13 males averaged
125.7 lbs (57 kg) and seven females 92.6 lbs (42 kg), while in the Brazilian
Pantanal males averaged 220.5 lbs (100 kg) and females 167.6 lbs (76 kg). The
size difference may be due to the greater abundance of large prey species in
more open environments.
More than 85 species have been recorded in the jaguar's diet. Large prey, such
as peccaries, tapirs and deer, may be preferred, but a jaguar will eat almost
anything it can catch, and in the rain forest will take mammal prey species in
proportion to their occurrence. Large herbivores are more thinly distributed in
rain forest than in more grassy, open habitats, where they are more likely to
form groups and cluster near water, and jaguar diet in the rain forest and in
savannah woodlands reflects this difference in prey availability and
vulnerability. In many areas, cattle are ranched on what is essentially prime
jaguar habitat, and cattle have been the most frequent prey species documented
in several analyses of jaguar diet in Brazil and Venezuela.
Jaguars are the only big cats which regularly kill prey (especially capybaras)
by piercing the skull with their canines. The massive head and stout canines of
the jaguar may be an adaptation for "cracking open" well-armored reptilian prey,
such as land tortoises and river turtles. Following the late Pleistocene
extinctions of large herbivores, the jaguar and the puma were the only
representatives of five genera of North American felid to persist, and it's been
speculated that the jaguar evolved to take advantage of a formerly superabundant
prey base of water reptiles.
Although the jaguar has been characterized as primarily nocturnal,
radiotelemetry has shown that they are often active during the daytime, with
activity peaks around dawn and dusk. Jaguars have been found to be active for
50-60% of each 24-hour period. Males travel a lot further (average 2 miles, or
1.8 km) than females (average 1.2 miles, or 1.8 km). Both sexes tended to
travel further each day during the dry season. Radio-collared male jaguars had a
tendancy to remain within small areas (average 1 sq mi, or 2.5 sq mi) for a week
at a time before shifting in a single night to other parts of their range.
Biology
Reproductive season: (W) probably year-round, but young are usually born in the
rainy season when prey is more abundant, hence seasonal birth peaks reported in
other areas (e.g., January-April in Venezuela) may be correlated with prey
availability.
Estrus: (C) 6-17 days.
Estrus cycle: (C) average 37 days, range 22-65 days.
Gestation: (C) average 101, range 91 -111 days.
Litter size: (C & W) 1-4.
Age at independence: (W) 1.5-2 years.
Age at sexual maturity: (C) 2-3 years, females; 3-4 years, males.
Longevity: (W) 11-12 years; (C) up to over 20 years.
Habitat and Distribution
The jaguar, which swims well, is strongly associated with the presence of water.
Habitats meeting this requirement range from rain forest to seasonally flooded
swamp areas, pampas grassland, thorn scrub woodland (Chaco), and dry deciduous
forest. In Belize, jaguars were more abundant in lowland areas of relatively
dense forest cover with permanent water sources than in open, seasonally dry
forests. In the Brazilian Pantanal, riparian forest was strongly preferred to
open grassy areas. Although jaguars have been reported from elevations as high
as 12,467 feet (3,800 m) in Costa Rica, jaguars typically avoid montane forest,
and have not been found in the high plateau of central Mexico or above 1,200
miles (2,700 m) in the Andes.
The historical range of the jaguar extended from Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas
in the United States south to either the Río Negro or Río Santa Cruz in
Argentina. Formerly occupied habitat in the north of its range included oak
woodland, mesquite thickets, and riparian forests. In the north, the jaguar's
range has receded southward about 620 miles (1,000 km), and has been reduced in
area by about 67%. In South America, the jaguar's range has receded northward by
well over 1,242 miles (2,000 km), and has been reduced by about 38%.
Population Status
Global: Category 3(A). Regional: Category 2(A). IUCN: not listed. The Amazon
basin rain forest, some 2.3 million sq mi (6 million sq km), is the key
stronghold of the species, and densities may be as high as one resident per 5.8
sq mi (15 sq km), as estimated for jaguars in Belize. This refuge is of
sufficient size and integrity to conserve the species in large numbers for well
into the forseeable future, even if densities are lower than in Belize. However,
the jaguar is declining in most other habitats. It has been virtually eliminated
from much of the drier northern parts of its range in the U.S. and Mexico, as
well as the pampas scrub grasslands of Argentina and throughout Uruguay. While
commercial exploitation for their skins is no longer a factor, jaguars still
face local eradication at the hands of cattle ranchers.
Key jaguar populations
exist in three areas: Yucatan peninsula/northern Guatemala/Belize; Chiapas
state, Mexico; the Pantanal; and Paraguayan Gran Chaco.
.
Protection Status
CITES Appendix I. National legislation: fully protected over much of its range.
Hunting prohibited: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Hunting restricted to "problem animals": Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico,
Peru. Trophy hunting permitted: Bolivia. No legal protection: Ecuador, Guyana.
Occurrence in Protected Areas
It has been estimated that at least 1,200 sq mi (3,200 sq km) of protected
habitat would be required to support a minimum population of 50 jaguars in the
Pantanal region. Isolated remnant populations are scattered through the
fragmented Atlantic coastal forests of southeastern Brazil, located in reserves
and also in unprotected areas, including the Serra de Paranapiacaba Mountains
southwest of Sao Paulo.
Principal Threats
Deforestation rates are highest in Latin America, and fragmentation of forest
habitat isolates jaguar populations so that they are more vulnerable to the
predations of man. People compete with jaguars for prey, and jaguars are
frequently shot on sight, despite protective legislation. The most urgent
conservation issue is the current intolerance of ranchers for jaguars. In many
cattle-ranching operations in the region, livestock roam widely and become
essentially feral.
Cattle have been shown to constitute a major portion of jaguar diet in studies
carried out on ranches in seasonally flooded savannah woodland. The
vulnerability of the jaguar to persecution is demonstrated by its disappearance
by the mid-1900s from the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, areas which are
today home to important puma populations.
A conservation plan has been developed for jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal,
and the Brazilian government is planning to establish a National Center for
Research, Management, and Conservation of Predators in Brazil to address
livestock-predator problems. The potential benefits of controlled sport hunting
have been emphasized as an element of national jaguar conservation strategies,
arguing that trophy fees would be an incentive for some ranchers to maintain
jaguars on their land. Translocation of problem jaguars has also been
recommended. Preliminary results from one such attempt in Brazil have been good,
but translocated jaguars in Belize often returned to stock killing.
Commercial hunting and trapping of jaguars for their pelts has declined
drastically since the mid-1970s, when anti-fur campaigns gathered steam and
CITES controls progressively shut down international markets. Organized poaching
rings, in which fur buyers travelled through the country supplying traps and
buying pelts from local people, are a thing of the past.
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