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Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation

Large carnivores such as jaguars (Panthera onca) are species of conservation concern because they are suffering population declines and are keystone species in their ecosystems. Their large area requirements imply that unprotected and ever-increasing agricultural regions can be important habitats as...

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Autores principales: Boron, Valeria, Tzanopoulos, Joseph, Gallo, Jenny, Barragan, Jorge, Jaimes-Rodriguez, Laura, Schaller, George, Payán, Esteban
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856405/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27144280
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153973
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author Boron, Valeria
Tzanopoulos, Joseph
Gallo, Jenny
Barragan, Jorge
Jaimes-Rodriguez, Laura
Schaller, George
Payán, Esteban
author_facet Boron, Valeria
Tzanopoulos, Joseph
Gallo, Jenny
Barragan, Jorge
Jaimes-Rodriguez, Laura
Schaller, George
Payán, Esteban
author_sort Boron, Valeria
collection PubMed
description Large carnivores such as jaguars (Panthera onca) are species of conservation concern because they are suffering population declines and are keystone species in their ecosystems. Their large area requirements imply that unprotected and ever-increasing agricultural regions can be important habitats as they allow connectivity and dispersal among core protected areas. Yet information on jaguar densities across unprotected landscapes it is still scarce and crucially needed to assist management and range-wide conservation strategies. Our study provides the first jaguar density estimates of Colombia in agricultural regions which included cattle ranching, the main land use in the country, and oil palm cultivation, an increasing land use across the Neotropics. We used camera trapping across two agricultural landscapes located in the Magdalena River valley and in the Colombian llanos (47–53 stations respectively; >2000 trap nights at both sites) and classic and spatially explicit capture-recapture models with the sex of individuals as a covariate. Density estimates were 2.52±0.46–3.15±1.08 adults/100 km(2) in the Magdalena valley, whereas 1.12±0.13–2.19±0.99 adults/100 km(2) in the Colombian llanos, depending on analysis used. We suggest that jaguars are able to live across unprotected human-use areas and co-exist with agricultural landscapes including oil-palm plantations if natural areas and riparian habitats persist in the landscape and hunting of both jaguar and prey is limited. In the face of an expanding agriculture across the tropics we recommend land-use planning, adequate incentives, regulations, and good agricultural practices for range-wide jaguar connectivity and survival.
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spelling pubmed-48564052016-05-06 Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation Boron, Valeria Tzanopoulos, Joseph Gallo, Jenny Barragan, Jorge Jaimes-Rodriguez, Laura Schaller, George Payán, Esteban PLoS One Research Article Large carnivores such as jaguars (Panthera onca) are species of conservation concern because they are suffering population declines and are keystone species in their ecosystems. Their large area requirements imply that unprotected and ever-increasing agricultural regions can be important habitats as they allow connectivity and dispersal among core protected areas. Yet information on jaguar densities across unprotected landscapes it is still scarce and crucially needed to assist management and range-wide conservation strategies. Our study provides the first jaguar density estimates of Colombia in agricultural regions which included cattle ranching, the main land use in the country, and oil palm cultivation, an increasing land use across the Neotropics. We used camera trapping across two agricultural landscapes located in the Magdalena River valley and in the Colombian llanos (47–53 stations respectively; >2000 trap nights at both sites) and classic and spatially explicit capture-recapture models with the sex of individuals as a covariate. Density estimates were 2.52±0.46–3.15±1.08 adults/100 km(2) in the Magdalena valley, whereas 1.12±0.13–2.19±0.99 adults/100 km(2) in the Colombian llanos, depending on analysis used. We suggest that jaguars are able to live across unprotected human-use areas and co-exist with agricultural landscapes including oil-palm plantations if natural areas and riparian habitats persist in the landscape and hunting of both jaguar and prey is limited. In the face of an expanding agriculture across the tropics we recommend land-use planning, adequate incentives, regulations, and good agricultural practices for range-wide jaguar connectivity and survival. Public Library of Science 2016-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4856405/ /pubmed/27144280 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153973 Text en © 2016 Boron et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Boron, Valeria
Tzanopoulos, Joseph
Gallo, Jenny
Barragan, Jorge
Jaimes-Rodriguez, Laura
Schaller, George
Payán, Esteban
Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation
title Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation
title_full Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation
title_fullStr Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation
title_full_unstemmed Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation
title_short Jaguar Densities across Human-Dominated Landscapes in Colombia: The Contribution of Unprotected Areas to Long Term Conservation
title_sort jaguar densities across human-dominated landscapes in colombia: the contribution of unprotected areas to long term conservation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856405/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27144280
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153973
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