Jaguar translocation in Brazil 253
in the urban area could have led to situations similar to those experienced by leopards Panthera pardus in India (Athreya et al., 2013, 2016), in which a low density of prey increased the chances of predation upon livestock and domestic dogs Canis lupus familiaris, leading to illegal killings of leopards in retaliation (Athreya et al., 2016). Attempts to translocate jaguars have provided inconclu-
sive evidence regarding whether this technique guarantees residence at release sites, mostly because of a lack of post- release monitoring (Gasparini-Morato et al., 2021). We were able to verify that translocation fulfilled five condi- tions. Firstly, the risk of attacks on humans was removed. Secondly, we confirmed the survival of Juiz for .2 years at the release site. Thirdly, Juiz established residence at the release site in an area that includes Rio Doce State Park. During the short-term period of GPS monitoring, the move- ments of Juiz indicated some tolerance towards villages of ,3,000 people, but he did not approach any towns (i.e. .50,000 people), and we found no records of his presence within villages. In addition, his GPS locations indicated no attempts to return to his capture site. Fourthly, Juiz did not appear to prey on livestock at the release site. Fifthly, local people at the capture site accepted that the process of translocation eliminated the potential risk of attacks on humans. At the release site there have been no complaints, to our knowledge, about the presence of Juiz, presumably because he did not predate livestock. Although Juiz was assigned to theAmazon/Cerrado gen-
etic groups, we cannot exclude the possibility that he came from an Atlantic Forest population. Cerrado individuals have high levels of admixture, especially with the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon, and this admixture could indicate that historically the Cerrado was a corridor for gene flow between these ecoregions. As a result of the small sample size for this ecoregion, the assessed molecular markers could not be used to reliably assign a sample to theCerrado because of the lack of diagnostic genetic features. Moreover, most remaining Atlantic Forest jaguar populations show high genetic differentiation, low diversity and low effective sizes (Haag et al., 2010; Srbek-Araujo et al., 2018). Small and iso- lated populations are prone to inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity because of genetic drift (Gibbs, 2001), making individuals from such a population more similar to each other but more different from individuals of other popula- tions. The high isolation and small size of Atlantic Forest populations could explain why Juiz had low genetic similar- ity with individuals from the closest sampled population, Reserva Natural Vale, and high similarity with individuals from the farthest Atlantic Forest population, the Green Corridor (Supplementary Table 1). The Green Corridor comprises the largest Atlantic Forest remnant, and its jag- uar population may represent the genetic composition of Atlantic Forest jaguars prior to the severe fragmentation of this ecoregion. In addition, our database did not include
some of the remnant jaguar populations from the coastal portion of the Atlantic Forest, including Rio Doce State Park. Juiz might have originated from a small, unsampled coastal Atlantic Forest population remnant with a unique genetic profile as a result of genetic drift. The other sample from MinasGeraisstate,bPon-057 (Supplementary Material 1), demonstrated high levels of admixture and could not be assigned to any genetic cluster. This sample was collected within the Atlantic Forest ecoregion, c. 300 km south of where Juiz was captured, and it could indicate that other unsampled jaguar populations from the costal Atlantic Forest have distinct genetic features. The translocation of Juiz avoided any potentially nega-
tive interactions between a wild predator and people in Juiz de Fora, and could have benefitted the local jaguar population at the release site. By investing substantial time and effort into planning the translocation, we were able to increase the chances of the survival and permanent resi- dence of the jaguar at the release site. Continued popula- tion monitoring and genetic evaluation of the recipient population will be crucial for evaluating the long-term suc- cess of the translocation and any potential negative impacts on the local jaguar population, such as stochastic behaviour- al events that could have greater impact in a small popula- tion with low genetic variability.Werecommend that future jaguar translocations should be based on objective and rigorous evaluation of the potential role of translocation in resolving human–wildlife conflict and benefitting the jaguar population at the release site.
Acknowledgements We thank the institutions and departments Pró-reitoria de Extensão–Jardim Botânico, Direção de Imagem Institucional, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis, Polícia Ambiental de Juiz de Fora, Policia Militar de Juiz de Fora, Corpo de Bombeiros, Exército Brasileiro, Instituto Estadual de Floresta, Prefeitura de Juiz de Fora– Secretaria de Meio Ambiente, Procuradoria do Estado de Minas Gerais and Ministério Público de Minas Gerais, and Marcus Vinícius David, Ana Lívia de Souza Coimbra, Gustavo Soldati, Breno Moreira, Márcio Guerra, Raul Mourão, Sarah Stutz Reis, Glauber Barino, Rafael Monteiro, Elildo Alves Carvalho Junior, Ricardo Corassa Arrais, Alexandra Cumerlato, Cynthia Widmer de Azevedo, Antonio Carlos Barbosa and Luciano Mendes for their help with the translocation. This study was funded by Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, Universidade Federal de São João del Rei, Instituto Estadual de Florestas de Minas Gerais and Ministério Público de Minas Gerais.
Author contributions Study design: FCCA, PHN, AA; fieldwork: FCCA, PHN, AA, RCdP, PRA; data analysis: FCCA, PHN, AA, RCdP, EE, CCS; writing: FCCA, PHN, AA, GAF, EE, CCS, RM; revision: FCCA,PHN,AA, PRA, GAF, EE, CCS,RM.
Conflicts of interest None.
Ethical standards Animal handling procedures followed research permit 34284-8 of Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da
Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 250–254 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323000662
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