IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Foster, R.J.; Harmsen, B.J.; Doncaster, C.P. | |
| Habitat use by sympatric jaguars and pumas across a gradient of human disturbance in Belize | |
| 2010 Biotropica (42): 724-731 | |
Jaguars (_Panthera onca_) and pumas (_Puma concolor_) are sympatric across the entire jaguar range, where they coexist in increasingly fragmented landscapes under threat of persecution mainly in response to livestock predation. Pumas are known to inhabit a greater variety of natural habitats than jaguars, but little is known about the influence of anthropogenic factors on the coexistence of these two similar-sized cats. This study compares habitat use of jaguars and pumas in Belize, Central America, using 1380 jaguar and puma photo captures from 3 yr of camera trapping, comprising 64-74 individual jaguars and an unknown number of pumas. Jaguars and pumas did not differ in their use of a large block of relatively homogenous secondary rain forest. However, pumas were scarce outside this forest block, whereas jaguars were detected throughout the human-influenced landscape. Reasons for this discrepancy may include differential tolerance to human disturbance, and resource limitation for pumas outside the forest block. Intra-specific variation in jaguar activity in the form of sex-dependent habitat use was detected across the landscape. Male jaguars were detected at more locations than female jaguars and more frequently at each location, with a declining difference from a 50-fold greater detection in the protected forest, through forest buffer, savannah, pastures, to negligible difference in the disturbed forest. |
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