Animal Biodiversity and Conservation. Volume 47.1 (2024) Pages: 49-61

Abundance of the northernmost jaguar Panthera onca breeding population

Amador-Alcalá, S. A., Valenzuela-Amarillas, J. F., Falconi-Briones, F. A., Carreón-Arroyo, G., Valdez-Coronel, C. M., Gardea-Béjar, A. A.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2024.47.0049

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Abstract

Jaguars are the apex predators of tropical and subtropical ecosystems in the Americas but their conservation is threatened due to habitat loss, poaching, and conflicts over predation. The Northern Jaguar Reserve (NJR) was created by Naturalia A.C. as a project to protect the northernmost jaguar population within an area of 59.3 thousand acres (24.4 ha) of private property. The property also includes other protected species. The present study was conducted to verify the status of this jaguar population in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the NJR, and to contribute to knowledge regarding its ecology. We estimated density using mark-resight and spatially explicit capture-recapture (SERC) models, and evaluated home range through a survey with 56 camera-trap stations over 12 bimonthly periods. In total, we obtained a sampling effort of 40,880 camera-days, registering 2.32 records from 1,000 camera-days. Jaguar density, calculated using the capture-recapture models, ranged from 0.3 to 1.44 indiv./100 km², while the SERC model estimated a density of between 0.21 and 3.04 indiv./100 km². The home range was 78.9 km2 for males and 45.1 km² for females. Long-term population monitoring together with the establishment of Areas Voluntarily Assigned to Conservation, an initiative recently created by the Mexican government, such as the NJR, could be a valid strategy to strengthen jaguar conservation and thereby maintain key ecological processes for other species and their habitat in northwestern Mexico.

Keywords

Camera traps, Home range, Panthera onca, Neotropical felids, Northern Jaguar Reserve, Spatially explicit mark–recapture

Cite

Amador-Alcalá, S. A., Valenzuela-Amarillas, J. F., Falconi-Briones, F. A., Carreón-Arroyo, G., Valdez-Coronel, C. M., Gardea-Béjar, A. A., 2024. Abundance of the northernmost jaguar Panthera onca breeding population. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, 47: 49-61, DOI: https://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2024.47.0049