Jaguar density in a mosaic of disturbed/preserved areas in southeastern Mexico

Abstract

Jaguar populations in Mexico have been extensively reduced to the point where the species is considered Endangered. In south-eastern Mexico, jaguar density estimations have focused in the largest Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs) but are lacking for the small, isolated JCUs where natural habitats are usually combined with farming areas. We installed 103 camera trap stations across an area in the small and isolated JCU of Laguna de Terminos and estimated the jaguar density using spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models with the sex of the identified jaguars as a covariate. We obtained 126 pictures of adult jaguars in 7052 camera trap days, corresponding to seven females, seven males and three individuals of unidentified sex. We estimated a density of 1.934 ± 0.529 jaguars/100 km2. Our jaguar density estimation was in the lower range of those reported elsewhere in preserved areas of south-eastern Mexico, probably because habitat quality has been reduced by agriculture and cattle grazing.