Effectiveness of protected areas for jaguars: the case of the Taiamã Ecological Station in Brazil

Abstract

The largest feline in the Americas and the third largest in the world, the jaguar is an apex predator in the food chain and a key species in the ecosystems where it occurs, developing important ecological functions in maintaining ecosystem balance. In Brazil, the Pantanal is considered an important refuge for the species, and protected areas such as the Taiamã Ecological Station (TES) are relevant for conservation of pristine ecosystem where the species persist. Thus, considering that this area is located in one of the regions with the highest concentration of this large cat in the Pantanal, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the protection given by the TES for the jaguar population. The station is a flooded island in the middle of the Paraguay river and surrounded by extensive wetlands. We monitored ten jaguars using GPS collar at the TES and its surroundings. The samples were separated into high-water season (January to June) and low-water season (July to December), and the estimated home ranges were grouped as: 1) residents only and 2) all monitored individuals. The stabilization of the home ranges of eight jaguars, considered residents, was determined through variograms. When all jaguars were analysed together there was 55% overlap between the clustered areas of the two analysed seasons. In the analysis excluding non-resident individuals there was 72% overlap between the clustered areas. The type of land cover inside these areas was very similar between these periods. The range of this protected area is not sufficient to effectively protect these jaguar populations, since the grouped home ranges of the resident animals studied are 3.5(wet)/2.5(dry) times larger than the area of the TES. However, the surroundings of the TES have low human impact and no deforestation and, in this way, the landscape context of the station may have a significant effect on the persistence of a large carnivore like the jaguar. However, it is necessary to create more protected areas in order to prevent possible future environmental changes in the areas surrounding TES.

Extensive aquatic subsidies lead to territorial breakdown and high density of an apex predator

“…Whether our results are generalizable to other jaguar populations in seasonally flooded habitats is confounded by the presence of domestic cattle, another subsidy, in other areas. The flooded nature of the landscape surrounding Taiamã has largely prevented the expansion of cattle farming, yet this region faces many threats and efforts to increase protected areas are critically needed to ensure future persistence of jaguars in the area (Cardoso et al, 2019;Quigley & Crawshaw, 1992). In an effort to prioritize conservation efforts throughout the jaguar's distribution, Sanderson et al (2002) stated "the goal is not to determine the most important site for jaguar conservation overall, or the most important site in a given country, but rather to find the most important sites for ecologically distinct populations of jaguars".…”

Wildfires Disproportionately Affected Jaguars in the Pantanal

“…Moreover, the available estimates for jaguar abundance we used 33 are very conservative and probably underestimated jaguar populations from the Pantanal by a maximum of 3 jaguars/100 km 2 . However, the reported density of jaguars may reach up to 12.4 jaguars/100 km 2 in northern PAs 44,45 and up to 6.5-7 jaguars/100 km 2 in the southern Pantanal farms 5,46,47 . Considering that PAs in the northern Pantanal were severely damaged by the 2020 fires, our results show conservative figures for the actual number of jaguars affected by fires.…”

“…In the Pantanal, jaguar HRs are smaller 32,45,60 and population densities are high 5,[44][45][46][47] because the biome is a highly productive system 42,44,61 , with an abundance of prey species and quality habitat, thus allowing jaguars to meet their spatial needs using smaller areas 32,45,60 . However, a trend of increasing drought, rising temperatures, and repeated occurrences of exceptional fires would weaken the Pantanal's resilience 19,31 .…”

“…We excluded individuals with insufficient data or classified as non-residents (SI_Figs.S3, S4, S5). Individual residency status was evaluated by analysing the asymptotic behaviour of semi-variograms (SI_Fig.S6, SI_Tab.S4) 32,45,60 and complementary statistics, such as the estimated number of range crossings (Narea or DOFarea), with the continuous-time time movement modelling (ctmm) R package 98,99 . Individuals were classified as residents if they inhabited the home-range area during the monitoring period, had DOFarea > 5 100 , or obtained an asymptote in their semi-variogram 32,45,60 (SI_Fig.S6, SI_ Tab.S4).…”

“…Although jaguar HRs often overlap with PAs 44,45,64 , some individuals may settle in unprotected areas 46,47 . In our sample, we found that 38 HRs partially overlapped with PAs (Fig.…”