Community-Based Monitoring of Jaguar (Panthera onca) in the Chinantla Region, Mexico

Abstract

Successful community-based wildlife monitoring necessitates a high degree of local participation during sampling design and data collection. Here, we describe a community-based monitoring framework to estimate density and habitat use of the threatened jaguar (Panthera onca) in tropical montane forests in the Chinantla region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Community-based monitoring was completed involving integration with local communities, local governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and academic institutions. In a camera-trap survey (37 stations, 2,553 trap-days), we recorded eight adult jaguars across 182.7 km 2 of montane forest. Spatially explicit capture-recapture models estimated a density of 1.15 jaguars per 100 km 2 (CI ¼ 0.55-2.38) using a more traditional likelihood-based method and 1.16 jaguars per 100 km 2 (CI ¼ 0.89-1.57) using Bayesian methods. The locations of jaguar captures and their habitat use appeared to be influenced by normalized vegetation index and capture rate of prey. Density estimates in the Chinantla region were lower than recorded for other lowland populations in Mexico but were consistent with elevation-based and latitudinal gradients across the range of the species. The community-based monitoring of jaguars increased the communication and interaction of local community groups, stakeholders, and academic institutions. It also provided participants with an increased knowledge of wildlife identification, transferable skills, wildlife appreciation, and an interest in reaching compromises to achieve habitat conservation. Our study provides a framework for the execution of community-based monitoring for large carnivores in Mexico and can be readily replicated and applied to other threatened species.

Environmental and anthropogenic factors synergistically affect space use of jaguars

“…Although local-scale factors can affect jaguar densities, and we have shown that multiple opposing factors shape jaguar spatial needs, there was a correlation between home range size and densities within our study ecoregions (Figure S1) as would be expected based upon energetic limits. 16 Similarly, the relationship between densities in other regions 41,[45][46][47][48][49] and home range size is evident in the range-wide predictions of our model (Figure 4) where increasing estimated densities corresponded to increasing predicted relative home range size. However, as our predictions are based upon mean predicted effects, their representation of areas for which we did not have data needs to be interpreted cautiously, especially for humid forests, given the aforementioned potential bias stemming from the availability of terrestrial prey biomass in these systems.…”

Circadian activity patterns of mammalian predators and prey in Costa Rica

“…Our study used a community-based monitoring framework to survey the large mammal fauna at multiple sites over a 10-year period. By empowering local partners to monitor the camera trap surveys, this approach enabled us to capture long-term data from remote sites comparable to that collected by professional scientists ( Danielsen et al 2014 ) while at the same time providing social benefits from increased engagement of local communities in wildlife conservation ( Danielsen et al 2014 ; Lavariega et al 2020 ). Compared with top-down attempts to regulate hunting, community-based conservation approaches that emphasize environmental education, citizen science, and the socio-economic benefits of sustainable development offer a more comprehensive road to reduced hunter defaunation that can maintain the biodiversity and community structure of tropical forest systems.…”

Diversity and activity patterns of medium- and large-sized terrestrial mammals at the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, México

“…Sampling protocol. We followed the community-based framework for camera-trap studies proposed by Lavariega et al (2020). This approach involves engaging a number of actors, including government staff of the protectedarea system, community monitors (local people previously trained in biodiversity studies), non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions, aiming to exchange knowledge and experience, make decisions on sampling design, participate in data collection, and discuss and communicate the results.…”