National parks influence habitat use of lowland tapirs in adjacent private lands in the Southern Yungas of Argentina

MARTINUZZI, SEBASTIAN; DE BUSTOS, SOLEDAD; RADELOFF, VOLKER; RIVERA, LUIS OSVALDO; BARDAVID, SOFIA; LIZÁRRAGA, LEONIDAS; POLITI, NATALIA; CHALUKIAN, SILVIA; PIDGEON, ANNA

ORYX

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Año: 2020 vol. 19

0030-6053

Protected areas are cornerstones of conservation efforts worldwide. However, protected areas do not act in isolation because they are connected with surrounding, unprotected lands. Few studies have evaluated the effects of protected areas on wildlife populations inhabiting private lands in the surrounding landscapes. Lowland tapir is the largest terrestrial mammal of the Neotropics and is categorized globally as vulnerable. It is necessary to understand the influence of landscape covariates on the habitat use by lowland tapir to undertake an effective onservation scheme for this species. Our objectives were to determine the potential habitat distribution of lowland tapir in the Southern Yungas of Argentina and to evaluate the role of protected areas and other covariates on tapir habitat use in adjacent private lands. We usedrecords of lowland tapir to model the species? potential distribution and determined habitat use with occupancy modeling. We constructed predictive maps of probability of habitat use based on those covariates found to be significant in our models and assessed how much potential habitat remains for the species. Probability of habitat use of lowland tapir was higher in the vicinity of both National parks and small households. According to our map, 85% of lowland tapir potential distribution have high probability (> 0.5) of habitat use and are near the three national parks of our study area. Probability of detection of lowland tapir increased with distance to roads. National parks have a key role in persistence of lowland tapir populations on private adjacent lands in the surrounding landscape.