Evaluation of Natural Conservation Areas and Wildlife Management Units to Support Minimum Viable Populations of White-Tailed Deer in Mexico

Abstract

In Mexico, wildlife conservation and management is officially based on two schemes: Natural Protected Areas (ANP, in Spanish), and Wildlife Conservation, Management and Sustainable Utilization Units (UMA). In this paper we evaluated whether these areas satisfy a minimum critical area (MCA) to support theoretical values of minimum viable population (MVP) of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus. MCAs were estimated using a model based on population density values from 1 to 30 deer/km2. MCA increased as density decreased. Results suggest an MCA of 1,667 to 50,000 ha to support an MVP of 500 deer, or 16,670 to 500,000 ha for long-term viability of 5,000 deer, depending on regional deer density. Biosphere Reserves, Protection Areas of Flora and Fauna, and Protection Areas of Natural Resources satisfy MCA requirements better than other ANP categories. In general, almost no UMA cover MCA. Geographic distribution of larger ANP and UMA are biased towards the North and Southeast of Mexico. We also evaluated the proposal of Priority Terrestrial Regions (RTP), and found that these areas could better satisfy MCA requirements; particularly, RTP could complement the need for reserves in the central part of the country. Selected study cases were used to illustrate the utility of this model to evaluate specific locations to know if MCA requirements are satisfied to support MVP of this deer. We suggest a regional network system of conservation reserves and wildlife management units integrating ANP, UMA, and RTP at regional scale, through source-sink and archipelago reserve models.