Jaguar Conservation Is About More Than Just Habitat Connections

The destruction and fragmentation of habitat is a central concern for species at risk of extinction. In South America, one such animal at risk is the jaguar (Panthera onca). This study examines data from 14 countries across South America in order to understand how habitat fragmentation may negatively affect a species’ chances of survival. The findings show that, for jaguars in particular, a fragmented landscape is especially problematic.

For many animal advocates, habitat destruction has long been an issue of concern. In South America, the loss of jungle habitat and the creation of grazing land for cattle is a particular worry. But not all habitat loss is the same, and habitat loss is different from fragmentation. As the authors of this study note, “it is critical to understand the differing effects of each process in order to better guide wildlife management strategies, permitting a more efficient use of limited conservation resources.” One of the ways to better understand the effects of loss and fragmentation is through the use of landscape metrics. However, according to the researchers, “even with the development of landscape metrics, it is difficult make general predictions about the effects of habitat conversion because it may be perceived different by species, so a species-specific approach is essential to measure the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation.” They go on to describe how Population Viability Analysis (or PVA) has become a more specifically useful tool to evaluate individual species’ responses to different environmental threats. With an interest specifically in jaguars, and how habitat loss and fragmentation has affected them, the authors looked at data from 49 different study areas in 14 different countries across South America, to analyze how jaguars are coping under different environmental circumstances.

In their own words, the researchers found that “jaguar persistence probability is linked to landscape configuration in an ecologically complex and interesting way. The proportion of suitable habitat in the real landscapes predicted jaguar persistence probabilities – it being greater when the habitat is aggregated in one single patch, which was reinforced by the simulations on hypothetical landscapes.” What this means is that, both in practice and in computer modeling, jaguars have a better viability when their landscape is aggregated into one larger patch than a series of smaller patches over a greater area. They note that, although having more habitat in general means that more jaguars will be present, “we have also shown that habitat subdivision dramatically reduces their persistence probability, even in landscapes with a large proportion of suitable habitat and a high jaguar density. Therefore, we can confirm that fragmentation is more detrimental than habitat loss to jaguar populations.” Considering that advocates for species at risk have a “growing dependence on protected areas for species conservation,” the findings are an important wake up call. There are many conservation areas identified in this study that “are not fulfilling their conservation function because they do not support long-term viable populations.”

The study raises numerous questions about how to manage jaguar populations in fragmented landscapes. The researchers speculate that, “perhaps jaguar conservation planning should emphasize strategies that increase population size by decreasing human-wildlife conflicts and increasing habitat quality.” Though they also note that decreasing human-wildlife conflict “will depend on multiple factors because it has an ecological, social and probable regional context.” Overall, the take-home message is that jaguar conservation is “far more complex than the connectivity between two areas.” Though aggregating landscapes may be a better solution, it may also not be practical at the moment. In the interim, “the implementation of dispersion corridors is of fundamental significance for long-term jaguar conservation in some regions, but its applicability should be evaluated carefully and in conjunction with efforts to maintain or grow local jaguar populations.”