Human-jaguar conflicts and the relative importance of retaliatory killing and hunting for jaguar (Panthera onca) populations in Venezuela

Jędrzejewski, Włodzimierz; Carreño, Rafael; Sánchez-Mercado, Ada; Schmidt, Krzysztof; Abarca, María; Robinson, Hugh S.; Boede, Ernesto O; Hoogesteijn, Rafael; Viloria, Ángel L.; Cerda, Hugo; Velásquez, Grisel; Zambrano-Martínez, Sergio

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2017.03.025

Cited by 47 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Jaguars represent a significant and well-documented threat to livestock throughout their range (Crawshaw, 2004;Zimmermann et al, 2005;Cavalcanti et al, 2010;Marchini and Macdonald, 2012;Amit et al, 2013;Amit and Jacobson, 2017), and perceived impact on livestock is a predictor of intent to kill jaguars for cattle ranchers in Brazil (Marchini and Macdonald, 2012). Our results show a smaller relationship between domestic animal loss and persecution than that shown in the Brazilian Amazonia and Pantanal (Marchini and Macdonald, 2012) and other cattle-ranching populations (Jȩdrzejewski et al, 2017). This difference in magnitude may be because domestic animals are not the primary livelihood for people living in and around the northwestern Bolivian Amazon.…”

Section: Experiences: Perceived Attacks and Depredationmentioning

confidence: 45%

“…Overall, people who had killed jaguars had last done so relatively recently; with more than half saying, they killed a jaguar within the last 5 years. Jaguar persecution without cattle loss has been reported elsewhere (Jȩdrzejewski et al, 2017;Bredin et al, 2018), indicating that killing is not solely retaliatory. Considering the recent reports of trafficking of jaguar parts in Bolivia (Nuñez and Aliaga-Rossel, 2017) and the relatively high levels of jaguar killing reported in our interviews, persecution of jaguars likely represents a significant threat to jaguar survival in northern Bolivia.…”

Section: Discussion Attitudes Toward Jaguars and Jaguar Killingmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Jaguar Persecution Without “Cowflict”: Insights From Protected Territories in the Bolivian Amazon

et al. 2019

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Persecution by humans is one of the most pressing threats to jaguars (Panthera onca) throughout the Americas, yet few studies have examined the killing of jaguars outside cattle-ranching communities. Although over one-third of the jaguar's range is formally protected, relatively little is known about human-jaguar relationships within protected areas and indigenous territories. Protected land within the Bolivian Amazon, considered a stronghold for the jaguar, contains communities who differ economically, legally, and socially from previously-studied human populations living with jaguars. Using in-person structured interviews, we investigated attitudes and norms related to jaguars and jaguar killing, self-reported past killing of jaguars, and demographic variables in two protected areas and an indigenous territory: Integrated Management Area (IMA) of Santa Rosa del Abuná (Santa Rosa, n = 224), Indigenous Territory Tacana II (n = 137), and Manuripi National Amazon Wildlife Reserve (MNAWR, n = 169). Overall, people disliked (48.9%) or felt neutral (26.8%) toward jaguars. A relatively large number of people reported either being attacked or knowing someone who had been attacked by a jaguar: 15.45% in Santa Rosa, 14.20% in MNAWR, and 30.88% in Tacana II. Many respondents stated to have killed a jaguar, although the proportion differed among study areas: 20.39% of Santa Rosa, 55.47% of Tacana II, and 32.72% of MNAWR. People perceived jaguar persecution as relatively common: 44.9% of Santa Rosa, 90.8% of Tacana II, and 65.8% of MNAWR said their neighbors kill jaguars (i.e., descriptive norm). Also, 75.4% of Santa Rosa, 89.1% of Tacana II, and 69.1% of MNAWR said that some of their family members and neighbors thought jaguar killing was good (i.e., subjective norm). Descriptive and subjective norms positively influenced both attitudes toward killing and past killing of jaguars. This perception of jaguar killing being common and socially-accepted, combined with high rates of past killing and a growing illegal trade of jaguar parts, may create an atmosphere conducive to widespread jaguar persecution in the Bolivian Amazon. We recommend management strategies that focus on preventing jaguar depredation of small domestic animals, lessening the perception of carnivore encounters as dangerous to decrease safety-related fears, and making large carnivore killing socially unacceptable (e.g., through social marketing).

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Section: Experiences: Perceived Attacks and Depredationmentioning

confidence: 45%

Section: Discussion Attitudes Toward Jaguars and Jaguar Killingmentioning

confidence: 94%

Jaguar Persecution Without “Cowflict”: Insights From Protected Territories in the Bolivian Amazon

et al. 2019

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“…In most of this forested area, human population densities are low (< 1 person/km 2 ). In such conditions hunting usually has no measurable effect on populations of jaguars and their prey base [ 33 ], [ 34 ], [ 68 ] and jaguars have a high ability to persist, unless deforestation and cattle operations are introduced [ 14 ], [ 69 ]. Our estimates suggest that jaguars are still likely abundant in some areas, and thus may play an integral role in trophic cascades and prey regulation in neo-tropical ecosystems [ 70 – 72 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our occurrence model accounts for these impacts as the probability of jaguar occurrence declined with increasing human population density. High human densities are associated with increased hunting intensity, human–jaguar conflicts, and negative impacts on prey populations [ 32 – 34 ], [ 68 ], [ 69 ], [ 95 ], [ 96 ]. The importance of forest cover and the human footprint index to jaguar occurrence likely reflects the adverse effect of deforestation and other habitat changes on jaguar populations [ 97 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating large carnivore populations at global scale based on spatial predictions of density and distribution – Application to the jaguar (Panthera onca)

et al. 2018

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Broad scale population estimates of declining species are desired for conservation efforts. However, for many secretive species including large carnivores, such estimates are often difficult. Based on published density estimates obtained through camera trapping, presence/absence data, and globally available predictive variables derived from satellite imagery, we modelled density and occurrence of a large carnivore, the jaguar, across the species’ entire range. We then combined these models in a hierarchical framework to estimate the total population. Our models indicate that potential jaguar density is best predicted by measures of primary productivity, with the highest densities in the most productive tropical habitats and a clear declining gradient with distance from the equator. Jaguar distribution, in contrast, is determined by the combined effects of human impacts and environmental factors: probability of jaguar occurrence increased with forest cover, mean temperature, and annual precipitation and declined with increases in human foot print index and human density. Probability of occurrence was also significantly higher for protected areas than outside of them. We estimated the world’s jaguar population at 173,000 (95% CI: 138,000–208,000) individuals, mostly concentrated in the Amazon Basin; elsewhere, populations tend to be small and fragmented. The high number of jaguars results from the large total area still occupied (almost 9 million km2) and low human densities (< 1 person/km2) coinciding with high primary productivity in the core area of jaguar range. Our results show the importance of protected areas for jaguar persistence. We conclude that combining modelling of density and distribution can reveal ecological patterns and processes at global scales, can provide robust estimates for use in species assessments, and can guide broad-scale conservation actions.

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“…These hunting threats occurred in otherwise resource‐rich areas (i.e., attractive sinks), in 29% of the jaguar's Chaco range. This likely occurs because jaguars range widely are often persecuted by ranchers, and their populations are highly susceptible to hunting, even in otherwise suitable forests (Arispe et al., ; Jędrzejewski et al., ; McBride & Thompson, ; Paviolo et al., ). Yet, jaguars are also vulnerable to habitat loss (De Angelo et al., ; Paviolo et al., ), most of which co‐occurred with hunting threats in sink areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat loss and overhunting synergistically drive the extirpation of jaguars from the Gran Chaco

Romero‐Muñoz

Torres

Noss

et al. 2018

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim: Understanding how habitat loss and overhunting impact large carnivores is important for broad-scale conservation planning. We aimed to assess how these threats interacted to affect jaguar habitat (Panthera onca) between 1985-2013 in the Gran Chaco, a deforestation hotspot.Location: Gran Chaco ecoregion in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. Methods:We modelled jaguar habitat change from 1985-2013 using a timecalibrated species distribution model that uses all occurrence data available for that period. We modelled habitat as a function of resource availability and hunting threats, which allowed us to separate core (high resource availability and low hunting threat), refuge (low resources but safe), attractive sink (high resources but risky) and sink (low resources and risky) habitat for 1985, 2000 and 2013.Results: Jaguar core areas contracted by 33% (82,400 km 2 ) from 1985-2013, mainly due to an expansion of hunting threats. Sink and attractive sink habitat covered 58% of the jaguar range in 2013 and most confirmed jaguar kill sites occurred in these | 177 ROMERO-MUÑOZ Et al.

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Human-jaguar conflicts and the relative importance of retaliatory killing and hunting for jaguar (Panthera onca) populations in Venezuela

Cited by 47 publications

References 31 publications

Jaguar Persecution Without “Cowflict”: Insights From Protected Territories in the Bolivian Amazon

Jaguar Persecution Without “Cowflict”: Insights From Protected Territories in the Bolivian Amazon

Estimating large carnivore populations at global scale based on spatial predictions of density and distribution – Application to the jaguar (Panthera onca)

Habitat loss and overhunting synergistically drive the extirpation of jaguars from the Gran Chaco

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