A Framework for Planning and Implementing a Jaguar (Panthera onca) Corridor to Reconnect La Amistad International Peace Park and Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica

Quantifying ecological relationships by gathering and sifting through large stores of data and applying statistical models to them is a substantial first step in identifying optimal habitat for the dispersal of threatened species, but the implementation of the result requires coordination between political, economic, and environmental actors that are further complicated by the margin of error in modeling a wildlife corridor. That is why the partnership between Arizona State University (ASU), the Phoenix Zoo: Arizona Center for Nature Conservation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) DEVELOP, and Osa Conservation needed a framework for identifying and analyzing the forest patches that constituted the least cost path (LCP) modelled to connect the Talamanca Mountains of La Amistad International Peace Park and the Osa Peninsula of Corcovado National Park and allow for the dispersal of jaguars (Panthera onca). A framework for selection of forest patches of adequate size was established in ArcMap and data were extracted to further analyze their characteristics and select targets to be ground-truthed. Forest patches were successfully identified and selected using data used for the modelling of the LCP. Patches were selected by the desired size of three hectares or greater, the home range of prey species paca (Cuniculus paca). Patches were characterized by patch area, resistance value or cost, distance from LCP, and distance from nearest neighbor across multiple forest density thresholds.