Jaguars in the matrix: population, prey abundance and land-cover change in a fragmented landscape in western Mexico
VÍCTOR H. L UJA,DIANA J AT Z I R I GUZMÁN -B ÁEZ OYÓ LS I NÁJ ER A and ROCÍ O VEGA-F RUTIS
Abstract Habitat fragmentation threatens biodiversity worldwide, particularly affecting large-bodied species that require vast territories and move across long distances, including most large felids. The jaguar Panthera onca has lost more than half of its habitat throughout its range and its subpopulations are becoming isolated, making them sus- ceptible to local extinction. Knowledge about the status of its subpopulations in highly fragmented environments is lack- ing but urgently needed. Using camera traps during 2019– 2020, we estimated number of individuals, age classes and sex ratio, occupancy, relative abundance and density of jaguars in Nayarit, western Mexico. We also determined the relative abundance of potential prey and estimated the land-cover change rate during 1999–2019, using GIS. We found that a resident subpopulation of five adult fe- males, two adult males and one cub, at a high density (5.3 individuals/100 km2), is supported by at least 14 wild prey species. Natural habitat in the area is rapidly decreasing because of expanding agriculture and shrimp farming: agricultural areas increased from 39 to 50% and mangroves decreased from 35 to 26% of the study area over 20 years. The high jaguar population density and the diversity and relative abundance of remaining wild prey are remarkable, considering that natural habitat in the area is highly frag- mented, shrinking rapidly and embedded in a matrix of human-dominated land-cover types. Effective conserva- tion actions are needed urgently, including the protection of patches with native vegetation, reforestation to main- tain connectivity between these patches, and the involve- ment of local communities.
Keywords Conservation, felids, fragmentation, jaguar, Mexico, Panthera onca, population dynamics, wild cats
Supplementary material for this article is available at
doi.org/10.1017/S0030605321001617
Introduction
with severe negative effects on biotic communities (Klein et al., 2011; Nagendra et al., 2013). Impacts vary depending on the type of ecosystem and biotic community, and can include the local extirpation and extinction of wild popula- tions (Newbold, 2018; Bradshawet al., 2021). Large carnivores have been particularly affected by habitat modification and loss (Loyola et al., 2008; Ripple et al., 2014; Zanin et al., 2015), and are suffering from synergistic effects of hunting and retaliatory killing (Ripple et al., 2014;Jędrzejewski et al., 2017).
H Most large felids are threatened by habitat fragmentation VÍCTOR H. LUJA (Corresponding author,
orcid.org/0000-0001-7480-7278,
lujastro@yahoo.com) Unidad Académica de Turismo, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Ciudad de la Cultura S/N., C. P. 63000, Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico
DIANA JATZIRI GUZMÁN-BÁEZ Maestría en Ciencias Biológico Agropecuarias, Unidad Académica de Agricultura, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico
OYÓLSI NÁJERA (
orcid.org/0000-0002-8637-9482) Cuerpo Académico
Recursos Naturales, Secretaría de Investigación y Posgrado, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico
ROCÍO VEGA FRUTIS (
orcid.org/0000-0002-3393-5860) Programa Académico de Biología, Unidad Académica de Agricultura, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico
Received 12 April 2021. Revision requested 29 July 2021. Accepted 29 October 2021. First published online 24 May 2022.
(Brodie, 2009; Holland et al., 2018). It has been estimated that the Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica and cheetah Acinonyx jubatus survive in just 2% of their historical range, the tiger Panthera tigris in 6% and the African lion Panthera leo in 17%. Some species have experienced dramat- ic population declines in the last 25 years: tiger 50%and lion 47% (Dalerum et al., 2008; Bauer et al., 2015; IUCN, 2019). In addition to habitat fragmentation, large felids are often subject to negative interactions with people, such as compe- tion for land and prey, retaliatory killing or hunting for the increasing illegal trade (Krafte et al., 2018; Nijman et al., 2019). These combined threats make large felids particular- ly vulnerable to extinction. Therefore, to design effective conservation measures, we urgently need to improve our knowledge on the population dynamics of large felids, their prey, and the patterns of land-cover change in habitats fragmented by human activities. The jaguar Panthera onca is the largest feline in the
Americas. Historically it was distributed from the southern USA to northern Argentina (Seymour, 1989; Swank & Teer, 1989). Its current distribution in Mexico ranges from Sonora to Chiapas on the Pacific slope, and from Tamaulipas to Campeche and the Yucatan Peninsula on the Gulf of
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2022, 56(4), 546–554 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605321001617
umans have modified more than 50% of terrestrial ecosystems (Hooke et al., 2012; Jacobson et al., 2019),
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