Guanacos (Lama guanicoe) and livestock interaction in La Payunia Reserve. Implication of arid lands conservation

SCHROEDER N, OVEJERO R Y CARMANCHAHI P

Edmonton, Canada

Congreso; 24th International Congress for Conservation Biology; 2010

Society of Conservation Biology

One of the most important sources of disturbance in the natural history of South American camelids was the introduction and naturalization of domestic livestock. This situation has generated a continuing conflict between the conservation of the native species and the needs of local settlers. In this sense, the objective of this work was to evaluate the interaction between guanaco (Lama guanicoe) and livestock in the La Payunia Reserve (central west of Argentina), to establish if the presence of the livestock determines a space and time segregation in the guanacos distribution. We followed the line transects method along a livestock gradient, recording number of individuals (guanacos and domestic animals), distance to the vehicle, angle to the North and GPS information. We found a negative relationship between livestock and guanaco densities, and also a spatial segregation between them (places in which one is present and/or abundant, the other is less abundant or absent). This results suggest a strong interference among the species studied and constitute the first approximation to understand the interaction between both herbivores. This study will be of a lot of utility to develop management plans and to establish areas of livestock use inside of the Reserve that it could avoid the expansion of the desertification processes in this kind of arid environments.