A camera trapping survey of mammals in the mixed landscape of&amp;nbsp;Bolivia&amp;rsquo;s Chiquitano region with a special focus on the Jaguar

Martin Jansen,José Luis Aramayo,Oliver Krone,Marc Engler,Damián I Rumiz,Luka Moritz Blumer

doi:10.15560/16.2.323

Abstract

At a site in the Bolivian Chiquitano region composed by a mosaic of pastureland and primary Chiquitano Dry Forest&nbsp;(CDF) we conducted a camera-trapping study to (1) survey the mammals, and (2) compare individual Jaguar numbers&nbsp;with other Chiquitano sites. Therefore, we installed 13 camera stations (450 ha polygon) over a period of six months.&nbsp;On 1,762 camera-days and in 1,654 independent capture events, we recorded 24 mammalian species that represent the&nbsp;native fauna of large and medium-sized mammals including apex-predators (Puma, Jaguar), meso-carnivores (Ocelot,&nbsp;Jaguarundi, Margay), and large herbivores (Tapir, Collared and White lipped Peccary). We identified six adult Jaguars&nbsp;and found indications of successful reproductive activity. Captures of Jaguars were higher in CDF than in altered habitats.&nbsp;In summary, we believe that (1) the mammal species richness, (2) the high capture numbers of indicator species,&nbsp;and (3) the high capture numbers of Jaguar indicate that our study area has a good conservation status. Future efforts&nbsp;should be undertaken to keep this, and monitoring programs in this region are necessary to further evaluate the potential&nbsp;importance of the Chiquitano region as a possible key region for mammals, especially Jaguars, in South America.

Highlights

Bolivia is a country with high geobiodiversity composed of 12 well-defined ecoregions with several sub-ecoregions ranging from lowlands near sea level to high altitudes of the Andes (Barthlott and Winiger 1998; Ibisch and Mérida 2004)
At a site in the Bolivian Chiquitano region composed by a mosaic of pastureland and primary Chiquitano Dry Forest (CDF) we conducted a camera-trapping study to (1) survey the mammals, and (2) compare individual Jaguar numbers with other Chiquitano sites
Of the total area of the San Sebastián cattle ranch (3,264.9 ha), half is used for farming, and the other half is a private reserve of low-disturbance, primary Chiquitano Dry Forest (1,673.7 ha; 51.3%)

Summary

Introduction

Bolivia is a country with high geobiodiversity composed of 12 well-defined ecoregions with several sub-ecoregions ranging from lowlands near sea level to high altitudes of the Andes (Barthlott and Winiger 1998; Ibisch and Mérida 2004). The pressure on Bolivian wildlife has increased rapidly during the last decades and has led to irreversible damage (Anderson 1997; Barthlott and Winiger 1998; Brooks et al 2002; Ibisch and Mérida 2004; Kosydar et al 2014; Peñaranda and Simonetti 2015; Romero-Muñoz et al 2019a). An example of a rapidly changing landscape is the Chiquitano region in eastern Bolivia, where agriculture and cattle ranching are the major forms of land-use and have been the major driver of deforestation in Bolivia during the last decades (Ibisch and Cuéllar 2004; Müller et al 2012, 2014a, 2014b). The Chiquitano region, located on the Precambrian Shield in the eastern part of the country, is a climatic transition zone between humid and dry forests, and at the same time a forest-savanna ecotone between Amazon, Cerrado and Gran Chaco (Whitmore and Prance 1987; Ibisch and Mérida 2004; Killeen et al 2006; Navarro 2011; Vides-Almonacid and Justiniano 2011)

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Conclusion