Matching Items (3)
Description
Jaguar population decline is largely attributed to habitat loss and retaliatory hunting. Maintaining a viable prey base in the wild can help to mitigate this issue and decrease human-wildlife conflicts. This study aims to assess the presence of prey species in jaguar habitat in order to inform conservation efforts to maintain and improve the health and relative abundance of the wildlife community. We analyzed nearly 40,000 photographs from 85 camera traps to assess the presence of prey species at sites where jaguars are known to occur. Jaguar-prey site overlap was calculated based on the percent of jaguar sites where each prey species was present. Medium-sized mammal prey species (e.g. Central American agouti) were present across the majority (up to 87%) of sites, while large mammal prey species were present in 16%-42% of sites, varying by species. These results suggest that conservation management of jaguars would benefit from improved monitoring and maintenance of a stable prey community.
ContributorsLewis-Quan, Kaidence (Author) / Schipper, Jan (Thesis director) / Hall, Sharon (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Anthropogenic land-use change, and its resulting habitat fragmentation, have restricted and isolated jaguar (Panthera onca) populations across their historic range of South, Central, and North America. As a result, jaguar are now globally listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List of threatened species (Quigley et al., 2017). Southwestern Costa Rica maintains two distinct jaguar populations: a small relictual “sink” population in Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula and a larger but marginalized “source” population in the La Amistad International Park in the Talamanca mountains to the Northeast. The small and highly restricted population located between Corcovado (425 km²) and Piedras Blancas (140 km²) National Parks has been isolated for more than 50 years, while La Amistad International Park (2306 km²) in the north contains a significantly larger population, but in suboptimal montane habitat. A mosaic of pastures, coffee plantations, African oil palm groves, pineapple plantations, and human communities separate these two populations. My paper offers an analysis of the habitat suitability between the montane forest of the Talamanca Mountains and the coastal forest of the Osa Peninsula for jaguars within a proposed conservation corridor. While forest was determined to be the most optimal habitat type for jaguar, mangroves and small scale coffee were also found to be suitable in the context of a corridor. Palm was identified as having marginal suitability, while pasture and pineapple appeared poorly suited for jaguar, particularly due to the lack of prey species and vegetation cover. Urban areas were found to be entirely unsuitable. While human activities have highly fragmented the study area, my analysis suggests that human-dominated landscapes, such as agriculture, can still maintain connectivity, especially when paired with actions to improve conservation, education, and sustainable practices. My research will further support the establishment of a proposed wildlife corridor, which could greatly improve connectivity for wildlife across the region and facilitate movement of jaguar and prey species between the isolated Talamancan and Osa populations.
ContributorsJohnson, Annie Laura (Author) / Lewis, Jesse (Thesis director) / Schipper, Gerrit (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
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.
ContributorsSerna, Patrick Karey Samuel (Author) / Schipper, Jan (Thesis advisor) / Watanade-Sailor, Karen (Committee member) / Frazier, Amy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023