Global Conservation funded a recently completed 3 year scientific baseline population study for jaguar and prey in Mirador National Park, Guatemala and Calakmul World Heritage Park, Mexico.
The Mayan Forest is the largest continuous tropical forest in the Mesoamerican region and is one of the most important areas for the conservation of biological diversity on a global level. This large forest massif is home to the jaguar (Panthera onca), which is the largest feline in the Americas, with its distribution ranging from the north of Mexico to the north of Argentina.
The forests of Mirador-Calakmul are one of the most biologically rich countries on the planet, home to the largest expanse of mature, seasonal tropical forests remaining in Mesoamerica (Carr 1999; Vester et al. 2007).
The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR) is one of the biggest and best preserved tropical forest areas that remain in Mexico. Unlike the majority of forest in the Yucatan Peninsula, the forest in Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, hereafter CBR, of Campeche, Mexico has not been used for large scale timber production nor has it been burned for farming and ranching. As such it is one of the last remaining stands of virgin forest in Mexico, being classified by UNESCO as World Heritage Site of Culture and Nature (UNESCO 2014).
Mirador National Park is a proposed UNESCO World Heritage park protecting the heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. These two parks are the best preserved areas of the region due to their historical isolation and protection activities.
The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest feline in America. Its distribution and abundance has been declining in the last fifty years due to habitat loss and fragmentation, illegal hunting and poaching, and an increase in human-jaguar conflict.
These threats endanger the viability of the jaguar ́s populations at a medium and long term throughout its total area, especially in Central America which has experienced major habitat losses over the past 10 years. The Maya Biosphere Reserve has lost over 80% of its forests and jaguar habitats in 20 years, with Mirador National Park one of the last bastions for jaguars remaining in Central America.
The jaguar is included in the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES 2006) and it is considered a species under threat according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2008).
Global Conservation funded 3 year scientific baseline for jaguar and prey in Mirador National Park, Guatemala and Calakmul World Heritage Park, Mexico
Bi-National Area of Study - Mirador-Calakmul. The study area presents the highest jaguar densities North of the Orinoco river in Brazil.
The First Bi-National Multi-Year Jaguar and Prey Population Studies
In order to develop a conservation strategy of the jaguar and for proper decision-making in conservation of the species in northern Guatemala and southern Mexico, it is necessary to have a solid diagnosis about the distribution and population status of the jaguar.
Primary Objectives
1. To determine the jaguar ́s abundance and density at El Mirador, Guatemala, and compared to Calakmul, Mexico where studies have been done over the past 3 years.
2. To determine the jaguar ́s prey base and feeding habits at El Mirador, Guatemala, and compared to Calakmul, Mexico.
3. To establish a baseline study to evaluate the long-term conservation of jaguar ́s and its prey at El Mirador, Guatemala.
During the dry seasons of 2018 and 2019, Cuddleback trail cameras were placed in a spatial arrangement of 9 squares of 9 km2 each (3 x 3 km) with an arrangement of 3 trap stations per frame, being these two single cameras and one double, with the aim of identifying jaguar individuals by their skin patterns of rosettes.
The trail cameras were kept active 24 hours a day during a period of 73 continuous days. A total sampling effort of 2,628 trap days was achieved.
During the whole sampling period, a total of 25 independent jaguar records (Panthera onca) were identified, which corresponded to 30 video records in different trail camera trap- stations. A total of nine different individuals from the left side, six females and three males were identified.
Based on this information, a density of jaguars in MIrador was estimated at 7 individuals per 100 km2, a value slightly higher than those reported in other studies in sites with a dense forest cover in the south of the Yucatan Peninsula (Ceballos et al., 2012).
The jaguar densities in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico and in the Mirador-Río Azul National Park and Protected Biotope Naachtún-Dos Lagunas, Guatemala were similar, with an estimated value of ± 7 individuals / 100 km2 (Ceballos et al., 2012).
With the values obtained in these three sites we estimated a jaguar population of 610 individuals for the combined protected areas with sum a total area of 870,815 ha.
The study area presents the highest jaguar densities North of the Orinoco river in Brazil.
In the last century, jaguar populations have declined and in many regions, and they have even disappeared (e.g. El Salvador, Honduras and Chile), due to the loss and fragmentation of its habitat, the continuous growing of the agricultural frontier, poaching and the decrease of their natural prey. The human-jaguar conflict has increased and along with it the risk of survival for jaguars in areas modified by human activities (Rabinowitz and Zeller, 2010; Medellín et al., 2016).
Throughout its distribution, jaguars are important conservation subjects, for several reasons like their important role as top predators in ecosystems, their value, economic and cultural importance and the potential conflicts with domestic-economic animals. Like other big cats, the study and monitoring of jaguars is difficult to do because of their large home ranges, low densities and their cryptic nature.
Knowing aspects such as the diversity of jaguar prey, their densities and abundances as a lower group in trophic networks, allow the establishment of a baseline and to be able to carry out a long-term monitoring program in the region, which could enable us to know the dynamics and different responses of jaguars to changes in their habitat.
The jaguar densities in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico and in the Mirador-Río Azul National Park and Protected Biotope Naachtún-Dos Lagunas, Guatemala were similar, with an estimated value of ± 7 ind / 100 km2 (Ceballos et al., 2012).
Mirador, because of its geographical position in northern Guatemala, is a critical area for monitoring and conservation of the jaguar, due to its great territorial extension in good state of conservation, the presence of jaguars and its prey, and because it allows connectivity between the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, with a surface of 723, 000 hectares of tropical forest located South of the state of Campeche in Mexico.
Study Methodology
Camera traps were used to determine jaguar abundance and density. This technique is widely used to study jaguars and other large felines (Karanth & Nichols 1998; Silver 2004; Chávez et al. 2007). The study site covers an area of 108 km2 divided into 12 sampling cells of 9 km2, which is the average activity area of adult females in 30 days. Each cell is divided in 9 sampling frames of 1 km2, where three camera trap stations are placed, separated by 1 to 3 km from each other.
A total of 36 camera traps were placed in each grid and stayed active for 60 continuous days. With this sampling design there is a high chance of photographing an animal due to the high sampling density.
Surveys were also conducted on existing roads for scat collection. Scats are identified by size and shape using a tracks guide (Aranda 2012). In this region both jaguars and pumas can be present. Scats were carefully saved in paper bags and labeled with the sample number, species, collection date, geographical coordinates of collection site and collector ́s name.
Like other studies with jaguars, more male jaguars were recorded, this is because they have higher rates of encounters in comparison to females, (Sollmann et al., 2011) as well as the fact of having bigger home ranges, with a greater tendency to walk on paths, being more tolerant to landscapes modified by humans, taking into account that females have smaller territories and less movement than males.
To view the full studies see:
Ecology and Conservation of Jaguar and its prey in the Mayan Forest (Ceballos et al) - English
Jaguars in the Heart of the Maya Biosphere (Castillo et al) - Spanish
Ecology and Conservation of Jaguar and its Prey in the Mayan Forests - Summary Presentation
Mexico Team - Gerardo Ceballos, Heliot Zarza, Carlos Cruz, Daniela Medellín
Gutemala Team - Vivian González, Manolo García, G. Guzmán, Francisco Asturias, J. Olivares
Dr. Gerardo Ceballos, Study Coordinator
Gerardo Ceballos is an ecologist and conservationist very well-known for his theoretical and empirical work on animal ecology and conservation. He is particularly recognized by his influential work on global patterns of distribution of diversity, endemism, and extinction risk in vertebrates. Ceballos was the first scientist to publish the distribution of a complete group of organisms (mammals). He is also well – known for his contribution to understanding the magnitude and impacts of the sixth mass extinction; he has shown that vertebrate species that became extinct in the last century would have taken more than 10 thousand years under the “normal” extinction rate. He received a Master degree in ecology from the University of Wales in 1981. And he got his PhD degree in ecology and evolutionary ecology at the University of Arizona in 1989. He joined the faculty of the Institute of Ecology at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in 1989, where he is currently a professor. He has been the president of the Mexican Mammal Society, and is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Research Interests
Gerardo Ceballos’ laboratory is interested in animal population and community ecology, extinction patterns and processes, and linking conservation and development. His lab has carried out the longest population and community ecology study of small mammals in the tropics of the World. A unique feature of his lab is the strong emphasis on applying ecological science for solving conservation problems. His lab has pioneering studies for designing protected areas, evaluating global patterns of species distribution and conservation, and evaluating current extinction rates. His lab has made an enormous contribution to conservation in Mexico managing to promote the creation of federal protected areas covering almost 2% of the territory of Mexico; and he promoted the first Mexican endangered species act.
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