Range-wide factors shaping space use and movements by the Neotropic’s flagship predator: the jaguar

Abstract

The range-wide management of the jaguar (Panthera onca) depends upon maintaining core populations connected through multi-national, transboundary cooperation, which is dependent upon understanding the movement ecology and space use of jaguars throughout their range. Using 117 telemetry trajectories from 12 ecoregions, we examined the landscape-level environmental and anthropogenic factors related to jaguar home range size and movement parameters. Range-wide and at the ecoregional scale home range size decreased with increasing net productivity and increased with increasing road density. Also, range-wide, home range size decreased with increasing forest cover and decreasing human population density. Movement within home ranges was best explained by a different set of environmental covariates. Range-wide predictions of home range size were consistent with expectations based upon density estimates. Our findings provide a mechanism to evaluate range-wide habitat quality for jaguars and an inferential modeling framework that can be adapted to the conservation of other large terrestrial carnivores.

Impending anthropogenic threats and protected area prioritization for the largest Neotropical apex predator in its Amazonian stronghold

“…For instance, jaguar populations potentially declined due the deforestation and wild fires by 1.8% in the last five years [70]. As jaguars have large spatial requirements, home range sizes and population density depend heavily on habitat quality and the prey base [12, 19]. In addition, jaguars strongly avoid non-forest areas in highly-forested landscapes [71].…”

“…Virtually all large-bodied wild carnivorans species have experienced clear population declines worldwide [2, 7]. Given that large-bodied felids often need large areas of appropriate habitat due to their large home ranges [7–8], these apex predators are strongly susceptible to high mortality in areas densely settled by humans [7, 9], even being able to often use agroecosystems as either corridors or supplementary habitats in fragmented landscapes [10–12].…”

“…Jaguars feed on a broad range of large-bodied terrestrial, semi-aquatic, and aquatic prey [18], resulting in large spatial requirements and wide-ranging movements to meet their daily metabolic needs [19–20]. This pattern of space use tends to increase as habitat quality decreases, rendering these apex hyper-carnivores particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation [10, 12]. Due to their large spatial requirements, jaguars are also valuable in conservation planning, ensuring that many other co-occurring species and high-quality habitat are also protected [21].…”