Differential impact of landscape transformation on pumas and jaguars in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest

DE ANGELO, CARLOS; PAVIOLO, AGUSTÍN; DI BITETTI, MARIO

Arusha

Encuentro; 2011 International Joint Meeting of the c & Africa Section of the Society for Conservation Biology; 2011

Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation & Africa Section of the Society for Conservation Biology

Jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor), being similar in size and behaviour, are the largest felids of the Neotropics. However, pumas appear to be more resistant to anthropogenic stressors. Our objective was to compare the response of both species to human impacts at a regional scale in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest (UPAF), a highly modified region where both species had continuous distribution in the past. Pumas and jaguars presence-only data were used in an Ecological Niche Factor Analysis. From the total number of records, we re-sampled 95 records of each species 10 times to characterize and compare their habitat requirements, built habitat suitability maps, and examined interspecific differences in niche parameters related to the landscape characteristics. Both species showed high dependence on native forest and habitat protection, and low tolerance to anthropogenic environments. However, jaguars showed higher differences between their optimal habitat and the available landscape (mean ± SD marginality M=2.290±0.072) and lower tolerance to deviations from their optimal habitat (tolerance T=0.596±0.013) than pumas (M=1.358±0.067, p<0.001 T=0.742±0.022, p<0.001). Although their niches highly overlapped (Pianka‘s O=0.746±0.069), pumas‘ higher tolerance resulted in a larger area covered by suitable patches of habitat with higher connectivity. All jaguar suitable areas were also suitable for pumas however, 44±8% of puma suitable areas was unsuitable or marginal for jaguars. Pumas showed more tolerance than jaguars to human impacts at a regional scale in the UPAF, a pattern also observed at local and continental scales. Although the proximate factors responsible for the differential response of pumas to anthropogenic stressors seem to be similar at all spatial scales, the resultant spatial configuration of suitable habitat at a regional scale might be another important factor determining puma resilience and higher jaguar demands on conservation efforts.