Puma density, habitat use and conflict with humans in the Argentine Chaco

Quiroga, Verónica; Noss, Andrew J.; Paviolo, Agustin Javier; Boaglio, Gabriel Iván; Bitetti, Mario S. Di

doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2016.02.004

Cited by 50 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Given that most of vertebrates cannot adequately be protected inside crop fields or in highly urbanized areas (Periago et al ., ; Pimm et al ., ), and most of them are highly vulnerable to high levels of habitat fragmentation (Periago et al ., ; Núñez‐Regueiro et al ., ; Quiroga et al ., ), we excluded pixels already covered by crops or highly urbanized areas from the analysis. For this, we reclassified a land cover map of South America (Blanco et al ., ) into a binary map, discriminating all of the pixels covered by crops or urbanization from the other pixels.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protected areas and spatial conservation priorities for endemic vertebrates of the Gran Chaco, one of the most threatened ecoregions of the world

Nori

Torres

Lescano

et al. 2016

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim To evaluate the representativeness of the current network of protected areas (PAs) of one of the most threatened ecoregions in the world, the South American Gran Chaco, and determine priority conservation areas for endemic (and nearly endemic) terrestrial vertebrates of the region.Location South America.Methods We identified all those amphibians, mammals and birds whose distributions were at least 70% within the Gran Chaco. Then, we refined and corrected species' distributional ranges, first, using records from collections and expert knowledge, and second, by incorporating environmental and topographic data using a technique for range polygon refinement. Lastly, we used ZONATION, a spatial conservation prioritization software, to evaluate representativeness of the current protected areas (PAs) network of the region and to define forest remnants to strategically expand PAs while maximizing the representativeness of the selected groups and considering human activities.Results Current PAs cover 9% of the region and represent 9.1% of the total distribution of endemic species. Considering our prioritization, increasing the coverage to 17% to match the Aichi targets would substantially increase the representativeness of the PA network, covering on average more than 30% of the ranges of all endemic species and 77% of the distributions of threatened and DD endemic species.Main conclusions Our results highlight that the need for well-informed decisions in the Gran Chaco is imperative. While the current PA network in the region ensures a very poor representation of endemic terrestrial vertebrates, opportunities to efficiently expand the PAs network are really high. This emphasizes the potential of complementarity-based systematic conservation planning tools as an essential support for conservation decisions. Given the great information gaps regarding biodiversity and human activities in the region, similar studies with updated data would improve conservation planning in the Gran Chaco in the future.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protected areas and spatial conservation priorities for endemic vertebrates of the Gran Chaco, one of the most threatened ecoregions of the world

Nori

Torres

Lescano

et al. 2016

Diversity and Distributions

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“…For Criollos, these programmes should also include information about the importance of pumas for conserving local ecosystems (Quiroga et al 2016). Most Criollos hunt pumas with the aim of locally extinguishing the species but they do not know the ecological roles of this species.…”

Section: Conservation Recommendations For Wichís and Criollos Of The mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most Criollos hunt pumas with the aim of locally extinguishing the species but they do not know the ecological roles of this species. Criollos are also unaware that the density of pumas is low in this territory (Quiroga et al 2016). The information about pumas should be targeted at the Criollos and the education and awareness programme should be applied simultaneously with: (a) measures to decrease the attacks of pumas on Criollosĺ ivestock.…”

Section: Conservation Recommendations For Wichís and Criollos Of The mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improvement of Criollos´livelihoods could include actions for a more efficient livestock production. This measure would have additional benefits: (a) alleviating habitat degradation due suboptimal extensive ranching (Morello et al 2012), and (b) decrease the attacks of pumas on Criollosĺ ivestock (Quiroga et al 2016). There are other ways of alleviating conflicts between extensive ranchers and wild carnivores, e.g.…”

Section: Conservation Recommendations For Wichís and Criollos Of The mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relations with wildlife of Wichi and Criollo people of the Dry Chaco, a conservation perspective

Camino¹,

Cortez²,

Altrichter³

et al. 2018

Ethnobio Conserv

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Indigenous Wichís and mestizos Criollos inhabit a rural, biodiversity rich, area of the Argentinean Dry Chaco. Traditionally, Wichís were nomads and their relations with wildlife were shaped by animistic and shamanic beliefs. Today, Wichís live in stable communities and practice subsistence hunting, gathering and in some cases, fishing. Criollos are mestizos, i.e. a mixture of the first Spanish settlers and different indigenous groups. They arrived during the 20th century from neighbouring Provinces. They practice extensive ranching, hunting and gathering. Our aim was to help develop effective and legitimate actions to conserve wildlife species in this region, focused on Wichís´and Criollos´perceptions of and relations with wildlife. We conducted semistructured interviews (N=105) in rural settlements. We found differences in both groups´hunting techniques, drivers and perceptions on the importance of wild meat for nutrition. However, both groups have a close relation with wildlife, they use wild animals in a variety of ways, including as food resource, medicine and predictors of future events. Wichís and Criollos also relate with wildlife in a spiritual dimension, have animistic and shamanic beliefs and have unique traditional ecological knowledge. Hunters in both communities are breaking traditional hunting norms but conservation measures grounded on these norms have a higher probability of success. Management recommendations include developing programmes focused on (i) conserving thin armadillos; (ii) conserving pregnant and breeding females of all species; (iii) managing dogs to avoid unnecessary killings and on (iv) improving local livelihoods. We also provide recommendations that are specific for each group.

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“…Nevertheless, several studies have estimated cougar abundance using photo-CMR, under the assumption that individuals could be identified by traits such as kinked tails, ear nicks, scars or body shape (e.g. Kelly et al 2008;Paviolo et al 2009;Negrões et al 2010;Soria-Díaz et al 2010;Ávila-Nájera María et al 2015;Quiroga et al 2016). Kelly et al (2008) examined the feasibility of photo-tagging cougars where the authors quantified the extent to which independent investigators agreed with one another when assigning ID to cougars in remote camera images.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying individual cougars (Puma concolor) in remote camera images – implications for population estimates

Alexander

Gese

2018

Wildl. Res.

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Context. Several studies have estimated cougar (Puma concolor) abundance using remote camera trapping in conjunction with capture-mark-recapture (CMR) type analyses. However, this methodology (photo-CMR) requires that photo-captured individuals are individually recognisable (photo identification). Photo identification is generally achieved using naturally occurring marks (e.g. stripes or spots) that are unique to each individual. Cougars, however, are uniformly pelaged, and photo identification must be based on subtler attributes such as scars, ear nicks or body morphology. There is some debate as to whether these types of features are sufficient for photo-CMR, but there is little research directly evaluating its feasibility with cougars.Aim. We aimed to examine researchers' ability to reliably identify individual cougars in photographs taken from a camera-trapping survey, in order to evaluate the appropriateness of photo-CMR for estimating cougar abundance or CMR-derived parameters.Methods. We collected cougar photo detections using a grid of 55 remote camera traps in north-west Wyoming, USA. The photo detections were distributed to professional biologists working in cougar research, who independently attempted to identify individuals in a pairwise matching process. We assessed the level to which their results agreed, using simple percentage agreement and Fleiss's kappa. We also generated and compared spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) density estimates using their resultant detection histories.Key results. There were no cases where participants were in full agreement on a cougar's ID. Agreement in photo identification among participants was low (n = 7; simple agreement = 46.7%; Fleiss's kappa = 0.183). The resultant SECR density estimates ranged from 0.7 to 13.5 cougars per 100 km 2 (n = 4; s.d. = 6.11). Conclusion. We were unable to produce reliable estimates of cougar density using photo-CMR, due to our inability to accurately photo-tag detected individuals. Abundance estimators that do not require complete photo-tagging (i.e. mark-resight) were also infeasible, given the lack of agreement on any single cougar's ID.Implications. This research suggested that there are substantial problems with the application of photo-CMR to estimate the size of cougar populations. Although improvements in camera technology or field methods may resolve these issues, researchers attempting to use this method on cougars should be cautious.

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Puma density, habitat use and conflict with humans in the Argentine Chaco

Cited by 50 publications

References 43 publications

Protected areas and spatial conservation priorities for endemic vertebrates of the Gran Chaco, one of the most threatened ecoregions of the world

Protected areas and spatial conservation priorities for endemic vertebrates of the Gran Chaco, one of the most threatened ecoregions of the world

Relations with wildlife of Wichi and Criollo people of the Dry Chaco, a conservation perspective

Identifying individual cougars (Puma concolor) in remote camera images – implications for population estimates

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