The wildland–urban interface lies at the confluence of human-dominated and wild landscapes—creating a number of management and conservation challenges. Wildlife sightings near human settlements have appeared to increase in the last years. This article reports 51 records of presences, sightings, and livestock attacks of Puma concolor, a large-sized felid, collected from 2012 to 2020 across the O’Higgins region in central Chile. Puma records were concentrated in the east of the region in the Andes Range and foothills (90%). The number of puma records is higher in the last four to six years than in previously studied years. Of the 51 records, 23.5% are between 0 and 999 m from the nearest human settlement (classified as very close), 25.5% are between 1000 and 4999 m (moderately close), and 51% are over 5000 m (distant). Most of the sightings are recorded in the summer (35%) and spring (29%). We identify an area of approximately 9000 km2 of suitable habitat as the most probable corridor effectively connecting pumas moving between eastern and western areas, encompassing the Angostura de Paine mountain range. Our results contribute to the understanding of the presence and movements of P. concolor near urban areas and human settlements, confirming their persistence in and adaptation to human-dominated landscapes. We also provide insights into human–carnivore coexistence in the current global context in the densely populated central Chile.
Liolaemus is an extraordinarily diverse lizard genus containing 257 species (Abdala and Quinteros 2014). The genus has been split into several groups (e.g. Lobo et al. 2010) of which the L. elongatus-kriegi Complex (Cei 1979) is one of the most characteristic in the Patagonian region of Chile and Argentina (Esquerré et al.
Resumen.- Los lagartos Liolaemus habitan en el sur de Sudamérica, siendo uno de los géneros de vertebrados terrestres más diversos del mundo. Dentro de este género, las especies del grupo de L. elongatus habitan en la cordillera andina de Chile y de Argentina, y en los afloramientos rocosos de la Patagonia Argentina. Aquí, nosotros revisamos la identidad taxonómica de una población de los Andes de la Región de O`Higgins, Chile, previamente confundida con L. cristiani. Nosotros encontramos que este taxón no es asignable a ninguno de los Liolaemus actualmente descrito y proveemos una descripción para este. Preliminarmente nosotros incluimos a esta nueva especie en el grupo de L. elongatus, siendo una de las especies del grupo distribuidas más al norte.
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