Population density of Geoffroy's cat in scrublands of central Argentina

Abstract

We studied the density of a Geoffroy's cat Leopardus geoffroyi population in a semiarid scrubland of Argentina, by comparing density estimates obtained during camera-trapping surveys in a national park and in nearby cattle ranches in 2006 and 2007-2008. Overall, we obtained 247 pictures of Geoffroy's cats. The density (mean AE SE) of the species at the park ranged from 1.2 AE 0.3 to 2.9 AE 1.4 individuals km À2 , depending on the buffer applied, whereas density estimates at ranches were on average 32% lower. Only 11% of the Geoffroy's cats identified in 2006 could still be detected in the area 2 years later, indicating that there was a high turnover of individuals in this population. The sex ratio (M:F) estimated during both surveys at the park was 1:1.4, whereas at the ranches it was 1:0.8. The capture success of sympatric pampas cats Leopardus colocolo and jaguarundis Puma yagouaroundi was o0.3 records per 100 trap-days, and no evidence of these species was found in the ranches. Geoffroy's cats seem to be tolerant to some degree of habitat alteration produced by livestock management, and the numerical response of this species in ranches could be largely the result of human persecution and the effects of livestock management on the habitat structure and prey base.

Habitat use by carnivores at different spatial scales in a plantation forest landscape in Patagonia, Argentina

“…Consistent with our results, the wildcat has shown to be sensitive to prey availability, reducing their densities to the low abundance of food (Pereira et al, 2006). In central Argentina, Pereira et al (2011) found that L. geoffroyi, was less abundant in areas where livestock was present potentially due to lower prey abundance in grazed areas. Alternatively, vegetation structure may have contributed to the observed response of L. geoffroyi.…”

Habitat-specific demography and conservation of Geoffroy's cats in a human-dominated landscape

“…All intersubpopulation migration rates were calculated with RAMAS based on center-tocenter distances. The initial population size of each subpopulation was based on ranch size and Geoffroy's cat densities estimated during our 2007-2008 survey (Pereira et al 2011) performed in the park (2.3 cats/km 2 6 1.0 SE) and ranches (1.4 6 0.7 cats/km 2 ). The density estimate for ranches was extrapolated to nonsurveyed ranches because habitat characteristics within the overall landscape were relatively uniform.…”

“…Although it is considered a relatively common carnivore, there are no demographic data for the species, and knowledge of litter size is based on sporadic observations (Ximénez 1975;Johnson and Franklin 1991;Yanosky and Mercolli 1994); only 2 studies estimated population density (Cuéllar et al 2006;Pereira et al 2011).…”

Impact of farmland use on population density and activity patterns of serval in South Africa

“…Servals are shy, elusive, crepuscular, and difficult to recapture in livetrapping studies (Thiel 2011). Mark-recapture methods in conjunction with camera-trap technique have been used in studies of several felid species and have been recommended for use with other individually identifiable species as well (Kalle et al 2011;Karanth 1995;Trolle and Kery 2005;Soisalo and Cavalcanti 2006;Pereira et al 2011;Ramesh et al 2012b). A camera-trap study of servals in Zambia (Thiel 2011) resulted in recapture rates too low for statistical analyses under systematic mark-recapture methods.…”