IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Pereira Leite, M.R. | |
| Relations between jaguar, puma and local residents in three conservation units of the Atlantic Forest of Paran State, Brazil | |
| 2000 Full Book | |
Brazil's Atlantic coastal forest is the second most endangered tropical forest in the world and just 8% of this ecosystem remains (roughly 8 million ha). While the forest remnants currently support populations of jaguars and pumas in more than a third of the protected areas, most of the forest is in fact unprotected, fragmented, and actively used by local people. In this study the goal was to describe how local people in the Atlantic Forest's protected areas compete with jaguars and pumas for prey species. We chose three contiguous protected areas with varying legal categories of protection (a National Park, an Environmental Protection Area and a Tourist Area) located in one of the best-preserved tracts of this ecosystem. In each protected area, we surveyed for presence of jaguar, puma, and resident people and carried out a comparative study of their diets. Jaguars and puma were confirmed to inhabit these areas, though jaguars were absent from the national park, and people were found living and hunting in all three protected areas. We documented a high similarity in the diets of resident people and predators. The density of large mammals in predator and human diets was found to be lower in the national park than in the other protected areas. The results demonstrate that competition for prey between local people and predators is a major and largely unappreciated threat for the long-term conservation of the Atlantic forest ecosystem. Even worse, the results suggest that competition for prey may cause declines in large predator populations even in protected areas where conservation efforts are otherwise successful, i.e., where deforestation and habitat loss have been minimized. Based on these observations, we conclude with some recommendations to enhance conservation and management in protected areas throughout the Atlantic forest. |
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