The Use of Camera Traps and Auxiliary Satellite Telemetry to Estimate Jaguar Population Density in Northwestern Costa Rica.

Regular evaluation of jaguar (Panthera onca) population status is an important part of conservation decision-making. Currently, camera trapping has become the standard method used to estimate jaguar abundance and demographic parameters, though evidence has shown the potential for sex ratio biases and density overestimates. In this study, we used camera trap data combined with satellite telemetry data from one female jaguar to estimate jaguar population density in the dry forest of Santa Rosa National Park in the Guanacaste Conservation Area of northwestern Costa Rica. We analyzed camera trap data collected from June 2016 to June 2017 using spatial capture-recapture methods to estimate jaguar density. In total, 19 individual jaguars were detected (11 males; 8 females) with a resulting estimated population density of 2.6 females (95% [CI] 1.7-4.0) and 5.0 male (95% [CI] 3.4-7.4) per 100 km2. Based on telemetry and camera trap data, camera placement might bias individual detections by sex and thus overall density estimates. We recommend population assessments be made at several consecutive 3-month intervals, that larger areas be covered so as not to restrict surveys to one or two individual home ranges, as in our case, and to carry out long-term camera monitoring programs instead of short-term studies to better understand the local population, using auxiliary telemetry data to adjust field designs and density estimations to improve support for jaguar conservation strategies.

Experimental Release of Orphaned Wild Felids into a Tropical Rainforest in Southwestern Costa Rica.

A 3- to 4-mo-old male ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and a 6- to 8-mo-old female margay (Leopardus weidii) were brought in from the wild, held in captivity, and rehabilitated for 906 and 709 days, respectively, at the Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center in Costa Rica. During captivity, both cats were kept as isolated as possible from humans and fed appropriate live wild prey. After maturing and demonstrating the ability to capture and feed on live prey, the cats were radio-collared, released at a national wildlife refuge previously assessed for predator and prey occurrence, and monitored. After 54 days, the ocelot was trapped while preying on chickens in a nearby community, and after 20 days, the margay was found dead, likely due to ocelot predation. Avoiding habituation to humans, assuring hunting abilities, and assessing release sites likely is not sufficient to assure successful release of these species, and more experimental releases with innovative and detailed protocols and monitoring are needed.

Environmental and anthropogenic factors synergistically affect space use of jaguars.

Large terrestrial carnivores have undergone some of the largest population declines and range reductions of any species, which is of concern as they can have large effects on ecosystem dynamics and function.1-4 The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the apex predator throughout the majority of the Neotropics; however, its distribution has been reduced by >50% and it survives in increasingly isolated populations.5 Consequently, the range-wide management of the jaguar depends upon maintaining core populations connected through multi-national, transboundary cooperation, which requires understanding the movement ecology and space use of jaguars throughout their range.6-8 Using GPS telemetry data for 111 jaguars from 13 ecoregions within the four biomes that constitute the majority of jaguar habitat, we examined the landscape-level environmental and anthropogenic factors related to jaguar home range size and movement parameters. Home range size decreased with increasing net productivity and forest cover and increased with increasing road density. Speed decreased with increasing forest cover with no sexual differences, while males had more directional movements, but tortuosity in movements was not related to any landscape factors. We demonstrated a synergistic relationship between landscape-scale environmental and anthropogenic factors and jaguars' spatial needs, which has applications to the conservation strategy for the species throughout the Neotropics. Using large-scale collaboration, we overcame limitations from small sample sizes typical in large carnivore research to provide a mechanism to evaluate habitat quality for jaguars and an inferential modeling framework adaptable to the conservation of other large terrestrial carnivores.