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Jaguars and pumas are top-predator species in the Neotropics that are threatened by habitat destruction, illegal poaching of their body parts and their favored prey, and by the human–wildlife conflicts that arise when predators attack livestock. Much of the remaining felid habitat in the Americas is in protected nature reserves that are too small and isolated to support local populations. Surrounding forests therefore play a vital role in felid conservation. Successful long-term conservation of these two felids requires evidence-based knowledge of their biological and ecological requirements. We studied population distributions of jaguars and pumas and their prey in and between two small, private reserves of the Northern Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, with areas of 25 and 43 km2. During 2 years of camera trapping (2015 and 2016), we detected 21 jaguars, from which we estimated an average space requirement of 28–45 km2/individual. Dietary niche overlap exceeded random expectation. The most frequently occurring prey items in jaguar and puma diets were collared peccary and deer. Jaguar also favored nine-banded armadillos and white-nosed coati, while puma favored canids. Both felids avoided ocellated turkey. Overall, diet of jaguars was less species-rich, but similar in niche breadth, to that of pumas. A fluid use of space by both species, in 2015 tending toward mutual attraction and in 2016 toward partial exclusion of pumas by jaguars, combined with the high dietary overlap, is consistent with a dominance hierarchy facilitating coexistence. Jaguars and pumas favor the same prey as the people in local communities who hunt, which likely will intensify human–wildlife impacts when prey become scarce. We conclude that even small reserves play an important role in increasing the continuity of habitat for prey and large felids, whose generalist habits suppress interspecific competition for increasingly limiting prey that are largely shared between them and humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scoping review was conducted to map, summarize, and understand the extent of evidence on jaguar (Panthera onca) food resource use and its interaction with humans. A total of 105 studies were identified in electronic databases: 57 analyzed jaguar food resource use, and 48 described jaguar interactions with humans. The studies were published in 51 journals, mainly in English, from 1993–2021 in 14/19 countries where jaguars live. The evidence demonstrated the variability and prey consumption of the jaguar; there are contrasting results regarding the diversity of prey consumed. The frequency of livestock predation was found to be related to the abundance and availability of natural prey and the distance of ranches from the jaguar habitat. The interaction of the jaguar with humans presented an interesting and contrasting picture, since the perception of the jaguar varied depending on the sociocultural context and the study site. The results showed a negative effect of human activities on the distribution and density of the feline, and there was evidence of poaching and attacks on humans, although the information was insufficient to determine the causes in depth. More research and dissemination are needed on these issues at the local level in the regions where the jaguar lives, as these are the areas where decisions and actions are needed to conserve the jaguar in coexistence with communities and livestock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern and paleoclimate changes may have altered species dynamics by shifting species' niche suitability over space and time. We analyze whether the current genetic structure and isolation of the two large American felids, jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor), are mediated by changes in climatic suitability and connection routes over modern and paleoclimatic landscapes. We estimate species distribution under 5 climatic landscapes (modern, Holocene, last maximum glaciations [LMG], average suitability, and climatic instability) and correlate them with individuals' genetic isolation through causal modeling on a resemblance matrix. Both species exhibit genetic isolation patterns correlated with LMG climatic suitability, suggesting that these areas may have worked as "allele refuges." However, the jaguar showed higher vulnerability to climate changes, responding to modern climatic suitability and connection routes, whereas the puma showed a continuous and gradual transition of genetic variation. Despite differential responsiveness to climate change, both species are subjected to the climatic effects on genetic configuration, which may make them susceptible to future climatic changes, since these are progressing faster and with higher intensity than changes in the paleoclimate. Thus, the effects of climatic changes should be considered in the design of conservation strategies to ensure evolutionary and demographic processes mediated by gene flow for both species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Beyond words: From jaguar population trends to conservation and public policy in Mexico" published in the journal PLoS ONE. The correction states that the 13th author's name was spelled incorrectly in the original article. The correct name is Marco Antonio Huerta-García. The correction is reported by the authors themselves and provides the accurate spelling of the author's name. [Extracted from the article]

Faeces provide relevant biological information which includes, with the application of genetic techniques, the sex and identity of individuals that defecated, thus providing potentially useful data on the behaviour and ecology of individuals, as well as the dynamics and structure of populations. This paper presents estimates of the sex ratio of different felid species (jaguar, Panthera onca; puma, Puma concolor; and ocelot/margay, Leopardus pardalis/Leopardus wiedi) as observed in field collected faeces, and proposes several hypotheses that could explain the strikingly high proportion of faeces from male jaguars. The proportion of male and female faeces was estimated using a non-invasive faecal sampling method in 14 study areas in Mexico and Brazil. Faecal samples were genetically analysed to identify the species, the sex and the individual (the latter only for samples identified as belonging to jaguars). Considering the three species, 72.6% of faeces (n = 493) were from males; however, there were significant differences among them, with the proportion from males being higher for jaguars than for pumas and ocelots/margays. A male-bias was consistently observed in all study areas for jaguar faeces, but not for the other species. For jaguars the trend was the same when considering the number of individuals identified (n = 68), with an average of 4.2±0.56 faeces per male and 2.0±0.36 per female. The observed faecal marking patterns might be related to the behaviour of female jaguars directed toward protecting litters from males, and in both male and female pumas, to prevent interspecific aggressions from male jaguars. The hypothesis that there are effectively more males than females in jaguar populations cannot be discarded, which could be due to the fact that females are territorial and males are not, or a tendency for males to disperse into suboptimal areas for the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The jaguar (Panthera onca) is one of the most threatened carnivores in the Americas. Despite a long history of research on this charismatic species, to date there have been few systematic efforts to assess its population size and status in most countries across its distribution range. We present here the results of the two National Jaguar Surveys for Mexico, the first national censuses in any country within the species distribution. We estimated jaguar densities from field data collected at 13 localities in 2008–2010 (2010 hereafter) and 11 localities in 2016–2018 (2018 hereafter). We used the 2010 census results as the basis to develop a National Jaguar Conservation Strategy that identified critical issues for jaguar conservation in Mexico. We worked with the Mexican government to implement the conservation strategy and then evaluated its effectivity. To compare the 2010 and 2018 results, we estimated the amount of jaguar-suitable habitat in the entire country based on an ecological niche model for both periods. Suitable jaguar habitat covered ~267,063 km2 (13.9% of the country's territory) in 2010 and ~ 288,890 km2 (~14.8% of the country's territory) in 2018. Using the most conservative density values for each priority region, we estimated jaguar densities for both the high and low suitable habitats. The total jaguar population was estimated in ~4,000 individuals for 2010 census and ~4,800 for the 2018 census. The Yucatan Peninsula was the region with the largest population, around 2000 jaguars, in both censuses. Our promising results indicate that the actions we proposed in the National Jaguar Conservation Strategy, some of which have been implemented working together with the Federal Government, other NGO's, and land owners, are improving jaguar conservation in Mexico. The continuation of surveys and monitoring programs of the jaguar populations in Mexico will provide accurate information to design and implement effective, science-based conservation measures to try to ensure that robust jaguar populations remain a permanent fixture of Mexico's natural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Competition for mates, cub rearing, and other behaviors differ between males and females in large carnivores. Although these differences can be reflected in patterns of habitat use, gender has rarely been incorporated into habitat models. We evaluated differences in habitat use between male and female jaguars in the Mayan Forest of the Yucatan Peninsula by modeling occupancy as a function of land cover type, distance to roads, and sex. Nested models were fitted to high-spatiotemporal resolution satellite (GPS) telemetry, controlled for temporal autocorrelation, and eliminated selection bias of pseudo-absences using a semi-non-parametric bootstrap. Although both male and female jaguars prefer tall forest, short forest was also preferred by females but avoided by males. Whereas females significantly avoided roads, males didn’t and ventured into low-intensity cattle ranching and agriculture. Females’ preference for intact forests and against roads led to their habitat being fragmented to a greater degree than that of males. Models that ignored sexual differences failed to capture the effect of roads and agriculture on jaguar habitat use, blurred the distinction of use between short and tall forest, and underestimated fragmentation of female jaguar habitat; but incorporating these differences increased precision of habitat maps and allowed the identification of potential jaguar-human conflict areas associated with male’s use of cattle and agricultural lands. Specifying sex differences increases the power of habitat models to understand landscape occupancy by large carnivores, and so greater attention should be paid to these differences in their modeling and conservation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]