FIRST DENSITY ESTIMATES OF SMALL ANDEAN FELIDS: WHICH IS REALLY THE RAREST?

REPPUCCI J.I.; GARDNER BETH; LUCHERINI M.; ROYLE ANDREW

Mendoza

Congreso; 10th International Mammalogical Congress; 2009

The Andean cat (AC, Leopardus jacobita) is one of the least known and most endangered felids in the world. The Pampas cat (PC, Leopardus colocolo), another poorly known felid, shares its habitat with the AC in the Andes. The AC is considered to be less abundant than the PC; however, previous attempts to estimate abundance have not accounted for the probability of detection which can greatly bias such estimates. To improve estimates of density for these two species, we carried out a camera trapping survey in northwestern Argentina, at approximately 4000 m of elevation. Sampling was conducted during October-December 2006 and April-June 2007. In each year, we deployed 22 pairs of camera traps, which were strategically placed. For the PC, we photo-captured 7 individuals in 2006, 9 individuals in 2007, and 6 individuals in both years. For the AC, 2 individuals were photo-captured in 2006, 6 individuals only in 2007, and 1 in both years. We used a Bayesian spatial capture-recapture model to estimate the density of both species and activity centers of captured individuals. The estimated densities were 0.754 and 0.748 individuals/km2 for PC and 0.070 and 0.130 individuals/km2 for AC in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The baseline detection probabilities were low (0.018 and 0.069 for PC and AC, respectively). The estimated locations of the activity centers for both species do not appear randomly distributed across the study area. Results indicated that PC density estimates were consistent across both years whereas the AC results varied more between years. We suspect that while the AC occurs in low densities in this area, where prey appear to be abundant, its density may be even lower in other regions throughout its distribution. We note that detection probabilities are important in making reliable estimates of density, a key parameter in conservation and management decisions.