Modelling the ecological niche of an endanger population of Puma concolor: first application of the GNESFA method to an elusive carnivore

CARUSO NICOLAS C; GUERISOLI, MARIA DE LAS MERCEDES; LUENGOS VIDAL, ESTELA MARIS; CASTILLO,DIEGO F; CASANAVE, EMMA BEATRIZ; LUCHERINI, MAURO

ECOLOGICAL MODELLING

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 297 p. 11 - 19

0304-3800

Throughout central Argentina the distribution of puma (Puma concolor) has substantially contracted and appears to be restricted to relatively pristine areas. We identified factors affecting puma habitat use at a landscape scale to produce a habitat suitability map in a grassland/shrubland scrubland ecoregion in central Argentina. Additionally, we examined the advantages of the General Niche-Environment System Factor Analysis (GNESFA) to determine the use of space of this carnivore. We used presence-only data collected by camera trapping surveys, semi-structured interviews to local people, direct (sightings) and indirect (tracks) signs of presence; and dead individuals recorded opportunistically. We use GNESFA to study the factors affecting the use of space by the puma, considering environmental, biological and anthropogenic factors; and MADIFA (Mahalanobis Distance Factor Analysis) to create a Habitat Suitability Map. Most suitable locations for puma were away from cropland or urban areas and from the main roads. Distances to roads and to scrubland patches were the limiting variables that affected the narrowness of the niche of this felid. Moreover, pumas in this region did not show a preference for closed habitats but rather grassland areas with some relict natural scrubs. This preferred patchy scrubland mosaic was typically created by selective logging. This paper reports the first analysis of the factors determining the distribution of pumas in a grassland/shrubland ecoregion in the southernmost part of its distribution, suggesting that pumas may use human-modified habitats and withstand some degree of deforestation and fragmentation. Our results confirm the usefulness of this integral approach to identify the factors affecting the ecological niche of a cryptic, highly-vagile species