Differences In Jaguar Movement And Home Range Size Across Varied Landscapes In Brazil And Argentina

MORATO, RONALDO; STABACH, JARED A.; LEIMGRUBER, PETER; FLEMING, CHRIS H.; CALABRESE, JUSTIN M.; CUNHA DE PAULA, ROGERIO; KANTEK, DANIEL L. Z.; ONUMA, SELMA; DE LUQUE, TADEU; ARAUJO, GEDIENDSON R.; PAVIOLO, AGUSTÍN; DE ANGELO, CARLOS; DI BITETTI, MARIO S.; CRUZ, MARÍA PAULA; RAMALHO, EMILIANO E.; CARVALHO, MARINA M.; XAVIER DA SILVA, MARINA; MAY JR., JOARES A.; HABERFELD, MARIO; RAMPIM, LILIAN; SARTORELLO, LEONARDO; SANA, DENIS; LIMA, FERNANDO; CULLEN JR., LAURY; FERRAZ, KATIA MARIA P. M. B.

Raleigh, NC

Conferencia; The Wildlife Society?s 23rd Annual Conference; 2016

The Wildlife Society

The jaguar, the largest cat species of the Americas, is widely distributed throughout the continent and inhabits a broad range of habitat types. In the last 30 years, several studies on ecology, behavior and conservation of the species has been published, including in the subject known today as movement ecology. Previous research on jaguar movement ecology focused on home range estimates using either minimum convex polygon (MCP) or kernel density estimators (KDE). However, neither of these methods accounts for autocorrelation in movement data and as a result both are likely to underestimate the home range. In addition, comparison among studies using different estimators has been difficult if not impossible in the past. We used the recently introduced autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE), which allows the use movement data collected with irregular sampling intervals and data gaps, to analyze movement behavior of 44 jaguars (22 males and 22 females) across five different regions in Brazil and Argentina. By inspecting variograms, eleven jaguars couldn?t be assumed to be range resident and were excluded from the analysis. Female home ranges varied from 24.7 km2 to 718.6 km2 and were significantly smaller (p = 0.97) than male home ranges (37.2 km2 to 1,268.6 km2). Males? movement paths are proportionally less tortuous (p=0.94). Home ranges were largest for males and females in the Atlantic Forest, followed by home ranges in the Amazon, and then Pantanal. Jaguars living in areas with high human population density had larger home ranges (p