Abstract
The jaguar (Panthera onca, Linnaeus 1758) and cougar (Puma concolor, Linnaeus 1771) are the largest cats in the Americas and are listed as uniquely extinct in El Salvador, Central America. The contributory factors for this event are little understood and/or ignored. This omission hampers conservation planning for declining big cat populations in other countries. A thorough review and analysis of the literature reveals important gaps that impede assessment of the factors for big cat extinction, and also possible meliorative efforts. The evidence questions the commonly blamed civil war and deforestation, and critically assesses a wider set of factors mostly not linked to big cat extinction; dense human population, small national territory, border porosity, cat adaptability to modified land cover and the actual importance of connecting forested corridors. The evidence from other countries shows possibilities of cat adaptability to all possible factors for extinction, but also hints at the possibility of the lack of connecting corridors as uniquely negative in El Salvador. Reintroductions of big cats in El Salvador must include internationalized assessments of their ecology and public tolerance of cat presence. It is imperative that generalized assumptions of cat extinction, e.g. the civil war and deforestation, and human population density are critically reviewed. Full conservation of big cats in the region requires reintroductions based on such critically acquired knowledge, rather than further debate
Highlights
Human population increase, intensified land use and attitudes to wildlife, as well as habitat losses, hunting and pollution have devastated the global biodiversity, even in ecological “hotspots” such as Central America
Human action is seen as the main predictor of large carnivore existence and extinction in addition to the natural factors of prey abundance and habitat suitability
Possible factors for big cat extinction are assessed in turn [90-105]
Summary
Human population increase, intensified land use and attitudes to wildlife, as well as habitat losses, hunting and pollution have devastated the global biodiversity, even in ecological “hotspots” such as Central America. The creation of reserves may be fruitless, due to land use conflicts with other pressing requirements, such as urbanization and agriculture, and the difficulty of restricting large carnivores to land inside the reserves This situation exists in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. Cultural differences in carnivore tolerance and government attitudes are factors for carnivore depletion, adequate management even with high human density can preserve carnivore presence Considering these issues, successful large carnivore conservation requires ecological information at species and population levels, and knowledge of relevant human behaviours, activities and attitudes [1-19]. The jaguar (Panthera onca, Linnaeus 1758) is largely extinct from the US, with occasional sightings in Arizona In all these cases, contributory extinction factors are intensified land use, human extirpation of prey species and suitable habitat, and increased human populations, rather than competition from other species or migration. The puma is listed as almost extinct or extinct in El Salvador, the only central American country where it was not protected, at least in the 1990’s [20-43]
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