Dog predation by jaguars in a tourist town on the Mexican Caribbean

Abstract

Invasion of humans and dogs into the jaguars’ habitat opens the way for future negative events. Dog predation by jaguars has only been recorded anecdotally, despite the high risk of pathogen transmission and the potential conflict due to pet predation. In this study, we document jaguar attacks on dogs in Mahahual, Quintana Roo, Mexico, a tourist town in the Mexican Caribbean. In addition, we describe an initiative designed to prevent jaguar persecution by constructing night houses for dogs at the most recent attack sites. A total of 20 attacks were recorded in the last nine years, most of them fatal (60%) on medium-sized dogs (70%), at night (95%) and during the dry season (65%). Half of the attacks occurred in the north of Mahahual´s coastline and the other half in the south. Attacks in the south were concentrated between 0 to 10 km away from the village, while in the north they were dispersed over distances between 0 and > 30 km. Thirty-eight night houses were constructed covering almost 45 km of the 135 km of Mahahual’s coastline. Further research is required to understand the importance of dogs in the jaguar diet and the impact of dog predation on the health and disease ecology of jaguar populations.

Predación de jaguares y pumas sobre animales domésticos en el sur del departamento de Córdoba, Colombia

“…Dogs, in particular, follow local and indigenous communities in their activities, including hunting (Koster, 2009), and generate considerable impacts on ecosystems and native fauna through predation, resource competition, hybridization, and disease transmission to other animals and humans (Silva-Rodríguez & Sieving, 2012). Management actions are recommended to protect dogs, such as locking them in cages at night (Carral-García et al, 2021).…”

Jaguar (Panthera onca) spatial ecology outside protected areas in the Selva Maya

“…In the Yum Balam JCU (a protected area), jaguars feed mostly on brocket deer (Mazama temama), collared pecari (Pecari tajacu) and armadillo (Dasypus novemecintus; Avila-Nájera et al, 2018), but in nonprotected habitat there could be important changes in diet, as jaguars frequently prey on domestic dogs (Remolina-Suárez, 2014), and Jaguar 1 commonly visited the Playa del Carmen's landfill, probably searching for prey therein (González-Gallina et al, 2017a), such as black vultures (Coragyps atratus; González-Gallina et al, 2017b). We can thus assume that relative seasonal stability in the core area size in our study region could be attributed to the year-long availability not only of wild prey (Cavalcanti, 2008), which could be attracted by easy access to urban disposal zones, but also to prey items such as domestic dogs (Carral-García et al, 2021). Jaguar 1 home range size is the smallest for a male jaguar reported to date, and is considered largely attributable to the availability of human-related prey at the Playa del Carmen landfill (Gallina et al, 2017a).…”

“…A jaguar population with resident males and females has been reported in this region . However, the continuous and accelerated expansion of the urban areas, and the growing road network crisscrossing the corridor is increasing the number of jaguars killed on roads and intensifying conflict between humans and jaguars (Remolina-Suárez, 2014;Carral-García et al, 2021).…”

Predation on sea turtles by jaguars in the Mexican Caribbean

“…The nighttime tours had no apparent effect on the presence of jaguars in turtle-nesting areas; in fact, the first author was able to directly take a photograph of a jaguar preying on a turtle (Figure 3d). Dog predation by jaguars has been recorded in the study area (Carral-García et al 2021). The particular spotrosette patterns allowed identifying that the same jaguars were hunting both turtles and dogs, suggesting that they have diversified their diet to leverage on the local conditions and adapt their behavior to the environmental and anthropic factors around them.…”