IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Payan Garrido, E.; Soto, C.; Ruiz-Garcia, M.; Nijhawan, S.; Gonzalez-Maya, J.F.; Valderrama Vasquez, C.; Castano-Uribe, C. | |
| Unidades de conservaci¢n, conectividad y calidad de h bitat de jaguar en Colombia | |
| 2016 Book Chapter | |
Landscape species, which are useful for designing protection strategies of an ecosystem, require prioritization exercises throughout their distribution areas to be able to properly direct conservation actions, seek to maintain connectivity and thus ensure its long-term conservation (Dinerstein et al., 1996; Coppolillo et al., 2004; Rabinowitz and Zeller, 2010). Once the conservation units have been defined at the landscape level, it is important to understand how they are related and how they are associated with the quality of existing habitat (Smith et al., 1998; Ranganathan et al., 2008). For the jaguar (Panthera onca), conservation units of jaguar (UCJ) (Sanderson et al., 2002c) are already been defined, and even its connectivity was analyzed in a modeling exercise known as Initiative of the Jaguar Corridor (Rabinowitz and Zeller, 2010). Thanks to the research of the last 10 years, we now have more data about the presence of jaguars in Colombia (Pay n and Casta¤o, 2013). The initial distribution maps of the species were made by association habitat of the first naturalists (Pocock, 1939), which included a holotype of the municipality of Guaduas (Nelson and Goldman, 1933) and were considered two subspecies of jaguar for Colombia, P. onca centralis and P. onca onca. Today we know that genetic data do not support the existence of both subspecies (Ruiz et al., 2006; Ruiz et al., 2007; Ruiz et al., 2013) or by craneometric analysis (Ruiz and Pay n, 2013). In addition, there exist recent maps of national scale (Pay n et al., 2009; Baptiste et al., 2013), potential niche maps (D¡az, 2011) and maps of regional distribution (Conservaci¢n Internacional, 2007; Ben¡tez, 2010; Conservation International and Fundaci¢n Herencia Ambiental Caribe, 2010; Brown et al., 2013). The ancestral presence of jaguars in Colombia was completely dictated by topography and included all ecosystems below 2 000 m (although there are exceptions). Today this area has been heavily restricted by human activities that destroy and transform habitat and move populations to areas of greater isolation and inaccessibility (Gonz lez et al., 2008b). The presence of the jaguar is negatively affected by the proximity with the people, at least as it has been detected in the Amazon (Pay n, 2009) and in the Argentine Chaco (Altrichter et al., 2006). Additionally, roads are actively avoided by jaguar females (Colchero et al., 2011). It is important to ensure long-term conservation of jaguar populations because changes in their presence and abundance could have an impact in the increase of some dams, usually herbivores and mesopredators (Crooks and Soul‚, 1999; Prugh et al., 2009). These changes can alter at the same time, the rates of dispersion and predation of seeds and plants (Estes et al., 2011), and could wreak havoc on indigenous and peasant gardens because these prey species consume their vegetables (Naughton, 2002; Naughton et al., 2003). The jaguar is considered almost threatened (®near threatened¯) in the Red List of Endangered Species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN; Caso et al., 2008), and in Colombia it is considered vulnerable (Rodr¡guez et al., 2006). Colombian legislation fully protects the jaguar in the national territory, and prohibits its hunting since 1973 by means of the resolution 848 of the Ministry of the Environment. However, the application and control of this law is little exercised in most of the country. Here we present a refined analysis for jaguars in Colombia, where we reevaluate the UCJ based on new data of the species, identify potential corridors among the UCJ, and we evaluate the size and quality of habitat available for jaguars in the country. |
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