CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

For the last five years we have been conducting research and conservation activities on jaguars and other felids in the Green Corridor of Misiones, Argentina, one of the biggest remnants of Atlantic Forest. Our research efforts have been focused primarily at obtaining an accurate estimate of this jaguar population and at understanding what factors are threatening it. We assessed the current distribution of jaguars in the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest establishing a network of volunteers (about 150 people) to obtain information on the presence of this species in the different forest remnants of this ecoregion in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The volunteers collect data on sightings, plaster molds of tracks and feces of large carnivores with associated geographic information. Simultaneously, we obtain reliable density estimates for jaguars at three different sites using camera traps in combination with population models and evaluate how the availability of prey, hunting pressure and the abundance of the puma affects the abundance of jaguars. With this information we estimate a total jaguar population of between 25-53 individuals in the Green Corridor (Paviolo et al. 2008). With these results and in collaboration with scientists from the Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology at Lincoln Park Zoo (USA), we conducted a spatially explicit population and habitat viability analysis (PHVA) for the jaguars of the Green Corridor. The results of this PHVA suggest that poaching is the most important factor that affects jaguars and that this population has a high probability of extinction within the next 50 years if this situation is not reversed (Lonsdorf et al. in prep.). Simultaneously, in collaboration with government and nongovernment institutions we are developing a Conservation Plan for this population and we have conducted large-scale communication campaigns and education programs promoting jaguar conservation. Despite our important advances in knowledge about this jaguar population, several research questions remain to be answered that are critical to understand how to manage this population and save it from extinction. Currently we are conducting conservation-oriented research aimed at: 1) monitoring this jaguar population and estimating population trends and turnover rates with camera-trap surveys carried out at regular intervals, 2) fitting jaguars with GPS-collars to learn how they use their habitat, 3) evaluating the health status of this population, 4) understanding how landscape features affect jaguar persistence and its genetic variability, 5) studying the diets of jaguars, pumas and ocelots under different conservation regimes to understand the interaction of poaching (prey depletion) and intra-guild competition in jaguar conservation. During the last 6 months we developed a third camera trap survey at the northern part of the Green Corridor. The density estimate is similar of that obtained in 2006 but slightly higher than the one obtained in 2004. Although our sample size is relatively small (N=13individuals), survivorship of the adult individuals is relatively high compared with a previous study in the area (Crawshaw, 1995). According to these results the abundance of jaguars appears to be stable or increasing slowly during the last five years. This might be the result of recent conservation efforts that include better measures of habitat protection , as well as communication and education campaigns. During the last six months we also started to analyze felid feces to understand if there is an interaction between prey availability and intra-guild competition that could potentially affect jaguar conservation. We also continued the analysis, at a regional scale, of the effects of fragmentation and land use patterns on jaguar distribution and population structure. In February 2009 we will start with jaguar captures to collect biomedical samples to evaluate the potential impact of diseases in the conservation of this jaguar population and to fix jaguars with GPS collars. The information provided by collared jaguars will allow us understand how jaguars use the landscape in the Green Corridor, how the pattern of habitat use may impose risks on jaguars, depending on differential human impacts, and what characteristics corridors should have to be effective for jaguar movements across different portions of the landscape. The results of our research will be used to improve the ongoing Conservation Plan for this endangered jaguar population.

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