IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Torres, N.M.; de Marco Jr, P.; Diniz Filho, J.A.F.; Silveira, L. | |
| Jaguar distribution in Brazil: past, present and future | |
| 2008 Cat News (Special Issue 4): 4-8 | |
Historically, jaguars lived from southern Argentina to the southwestern United States, but due to anthropogenic pressure, their range has been reduced to less than 46% of its original size. As almost half of this area is within Brazilian territory, the country is key to future jaguar conservation. Knowledge of geographic distribution has been recognized as an important issue to support conservation plans, and recently, climatic change has been shown to influence species distribution. This study estimated potential jaguar distribution using ecological niche modeling. We accumulated 1,049 jaguar occurrence points and used climate and topographic data as predictive variables. We employed the Mahalanobis Distance Method to produce a historical and future distribution map, considering values for current and future climate, respectively. To estimate current jaguar distribution, we restricted the historical distribution according to the jaguar's preferred habitat classes. While range of distribution changed little from current to future climate, the extent of more suitable areas was reduced. Areas with high predicted future suitability are currently under habitat conversion. Comparison of these maps enables the identification of important areas for jaguar conservation in Brazil. |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |