Landscapes attributes and their consequences on jaguar Panthera onca and cattle depredation occurrence

Abstract

Human activities affect large carnivores worldwide by increasing mortality due to destruction and fragmentation of habitats, decrease of prey availability, and hunting pressure. The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a large carnivore strongly influenced by these threats, with poaching of predators being primarily a retaliatory response that is motivated by depredation of domestic animals. We investigate the distribution of jaguars and cattle depredation in 21 sampling units located in Central Brazil. We consider native and domestic prey availability as well as landscape configuration and composition as possible contributory factors. We removed correlated variables and conducted a set of logistic regressions in a step-wise approach. We used the difference between χ2 of the newest and the previous model to evaluate if the addition of a variable increased the explanatory power of the newest model. Jaguar occurrence was influenced by prey richness, which is correlated with habitat aggregation in the landscape, revealing the attributes that can act as proxies for environmental quality for jaguar. The relationship between jaguar and prey richness also suggests that jaguar can act as a surrogate for the presence of other species. Jaguar occurrence is also related to the availability of non-native prey such as cattle, but not cattle depredation, suggesting that cattle depredation could be an opportunistic event. Patterns of cattle depredation warrant further study because human-wildlife conflict is one of the greatest threats to jaguar conservation.