Idea Transcript
HABITAT USE, ACTIVITY PATTERNS, AND HUMAN INTERACTIONS OF JAGUARS IN SOUTHERN BELIZE
by MICHAEL TAYLOR DOBBINS
MICHAEL STEINBERG, COMMITTEE CHAIR EBEN BROADBENT JENNIFER HOWETH
A THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Geography in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA
2015
Copyright Michael Taylor Dobbins 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ABSTRACT
We examined the presence of jaguar (Panthera onca) and analyzed its habitat use, activity patterns, and human interactions in a community-dominated tropical landscape in the Maya region of southern Belize. Jaguar presence was detected from camera traps, and informal interviews with 48 residents were conducted to assess the perception of jaguars in the study village of Blue Creek. Seven individual jaguars were identified from 28 independent photographic events over 1,200 camera trap nights, indicating a relative abundance index (RAI) of 2.8 photographs per 100 trap days. Jaguars tended to prefer lowland broad-leaf tropical forest, between the hours of 13:00-18:00. They were rarely observed at night, with only 11% of records occurring after dark. The perception of jaguars in this community was largely positive, with 88% of respondents not fearing jaguars living around the village, and 81% of respondents understanding the positive effect that jaguars have on the ecosystem. There was no significant correlation between respondents’ religious affiliation or education level and their perception of jaguars. Although 92% of respondents had reported seeing a jaguar within the last two years, jaguar attacks on livestock in the village are rare, with only two occurrences in the past three years. In recent years, ecotourism has rapidly grown in Belize. Blue Creek is home to several natural tourist attractions, as well as an eco-lodge that brings in tourists, school groups, and researchers to the village. Ecotourism has provided an economic incentive for the village to be
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invested in conservation, as 94% of respondents thought that the preservation of wildlife, including jaguars, and the forests would be beneficial to their wellbeing.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am pleased to have this opportunity to thank the many family, friends, and faculty members who have helped me with this research project. I would like to thank The University of Alabama Department of Geography for giving me this opportunity to continue my education. I would like to thank the Birmingham Zoo for their financial support of this research, without which this project would not have been possible. I would like to thank Drs. Eben Broadbent and Jennifer Howeth for their valued insight and for serving on my thesis committee. I would especially like to thank Dr. Michael Steinberg for being the chair of my thesis committee and for his guidance throughout the entire research process. I would also like to thank my friend Lucas Thomas and uncle Don Davidson for all of their help in the field setting up and collecting data from our camera stations. I would like to thank our guides Florencio Coc and Eusebio Pop for safely leading through the dense forests and IZE Belize for providing us with an amazing place to stay and conduct our research while in Blue Creek. Lastly, I would like to thank my family and especially my wife, Brooke Dobbins, for all of their love and support while completing my thesis.
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CONTENTS ABSTRACT
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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LIST OF TABLES
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LIST OF FIGURES
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
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2.1 Belize
5
2.2 Ancient and Modern Maya Culture in Belize
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2.3 Jaguar History and Ecology
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2.4 Human-Jaguar Interactions and Conservation
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
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3.1 Study Area
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3.2 Track Plotting
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3.3 Camera Trapping
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3.4 Social Methods
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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
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4.1 Camera Data
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4.2 Social Data
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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
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CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
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REFERENCES
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APPENDIX
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LIST OF TABLES 4.1 Camera capture rate of jaguars
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LIST OF FIGURES 3.1 Study area map
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4.1 Normalized distribution of jaguar detections
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4.2 Hourly variation in jaguar activity
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8.1 Resident Survey
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8.2 Jaguar in lowland tropical forest – Camera 10
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8.3 Jaguar in lowland tropical forest – Camera 12a
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8.4 Jaguar in swamp/wetland – Camera 13
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8.5 Jaguar in lowland tropical forest – Camera 12b
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest cat in the Americas and has historically ranged from the Southern United States to Argentina. However, anthropogenic factors such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, illegal hunting, and hunting of jaguar prey species have led to a 40% decrease of its historic range (Zeller, 2007). Within the jaguar’s current range, Belize is a country of particular importance in jaguar conservation efforts because it serves as a corridor between jaguar populations in Guatemala and Mexico to the rest of Central America. While approximately 60% of Belize’s forests still remain (Cherrington et al., 2010), economic development and agricultural practices pose a major threat to the connectivity of Belize’s jaguar corridor – a least-cost corridor proposed by the wild cat research group, Panthera. Most studies to date examining the effects of human disturbance on jaguar populations have occurred in Central and Northern Belize (Davis, Kelly, & Stauffer, 2011; Foster, Harmsen, & Doncaster, 2010; Harmsen et al., 2009; Kelly et al., 2008; Rabinowitz, 1986; Silver et al., 2004; Weckel, Giuliano, Silver, & York, 2006), thus leaving the southernmost district, Toledo, relatively unknown. The Toledo district’s landscape is dominated by more than 30 Mopan and Kekchi Maya villages, whose inhabitants routinely practice slash and burn agriculture (Steinberg, 1998). Despite the high level of human disturbance and forest fragmentation found in the Maya region,
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preliminary surveys from Blue Creek conducted in June 2013 suggested that jaguars and other cats routinely travel through the region. This study aims to record the presence of jaguars, as well as identify their habitat use and activity patterns via remote cameras, in the Maya village of Blue Creek, Belize. Although jaguars are found across a variety of habitats, previous studies have shown that jaguars prefer tropical lowland environments 300m elevation) was the largest habitat type in the area, jaguars were rarely present there (11%) (Fig. 4.1). Jaguars were most commonly found in lowland tropical broad-leaf forests ( 0.1). There is also a strong connection between jaguars and Maya culture. Many gods in ancient Maya religion were jaguars, and even today, jaguars are still seen as a sign of strength and power among Mesoamerican communities (Benson, 1998). Although most of the respondents identified themselves as Christian (75%), many still held traditional Maya beliefs, such as using shaman as healers. Additionally, 90% of respondents believed that jaguars remain
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an important part of their culture. However, similarly to education level, there was no significant correlation between religious affiliation and perception of jaguars (P > 0.5). Blue Creek is a relatively unique Maya village due to the fact that it contains a biological field station, which brings in hundreds of guests per year and considerable economic support. The field station is owned by International Zoological Expedition (IZE) Belize and serves as an eco-lodge for tourists, student groups, and researchers. It is locally managed by members of the Blue Creek community, and many families economically benefit by working as cooks, tour guides, and making crafts to sell to visitors. Therefore, nearly all respondents (94%) believed that the presence of jaguars and other charismatic wildlife had a positive effect on the ecotourism of the village, and that the future conservation of these species and their habitat would be beneficial to them.
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Table 4.1. Camera-trap capture rates of jaguars across 12 sampling stations from May-August 2014.
Station1
Habitat
Days
1
Submontane
100
0
0
0
3
Swamp
100
7
3
2
4
Swamp
100
5
4
2
5
Swamp
100
0
0
0
6
Agriculture
100
2
1
1
8
Submontane
100
6
3
1
9
Submontane
100
0
0
0
10
Lowland
100
12
4
2
11
Lowland
100
0
0
0
12
Lowland
100
20
7
3
13
Lowland
100
15
6
3
15
Submontane
100
0
0
0
Photographs
Independent
1. Camera stations: 2, 7, and 14 were lost due to theft and were not included. 2. Four individuals were recorded at multiple stations.
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Individuals 2
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION This study is the first to document jaguar presence through the use of camera traps in the Maya communities of southern Belize. Seven individual jaguars were identified in a study area significantly smaller than a single jaguar’s home range (e.g. up to 40km2 in the tropical forests of Belize, Rabinowitz & Nottingham, 1986; and up to 142km2 in the Pantanal region of Brazil, Quigley & Crawshaw, 1991). The average distance of 1.1km between camera stations provided a high capture probability for any permanent or transient jaguars in the area. Although the duration of the study did not allow for us to identify which individual jaguars were permanent and transient, the relatively high number of jaguars identified in this small rural community does suggest significant overlapping of home ranges (as shown by Quigley & Crawshaw, 1991; Harmsen et al., 2009). Of the four major habitat types in the study area (submontane broad-leaf forest, lowland broad-leaf forest, swamp, and agriculture), the lowland forest had the largest number of jaguar sightings. Aside from being optimal jaguar habitat, lowland forest in Blue Creek also had the highest availability of preferred jaguar prey species: armadillos (Dasypus novemicinctus), peccaries (Tayassu pecari and Pecari tajacu), and deer (Mazama americana and Odocoileus truei). Interestingly, the lowland forest also had the second highest rate of human activity, behind
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agriculture. There were five occasions in which cameras recorded humans and jaguars crossing sampling stations within just minutes of each other. Despite being the largest habitat type in the study area, the submontane forest had the smallest normalized detections of jaguars per camera station (Fig. 4.1). This area contained less human traffic, but also had fewer trails to traverse the rugged terrain. Preferred prey species and water availability were scarce, and the few puma sightings occurred only in this region as well, perhaps suggesting avoidance between the two cat species. The swamp habitat provides an interesting example of how humans are influencing the local landscape. Dividing the swamp and the lowland forest is an elevated road that travels from Blue Creek to Santa Theresa. This road acts as a dam during the rainy season, and as a result, it seasonally floods much of the designated swamp habitat - sometimes with depths of up to six feet. Although the only barrier between the two habitats is a small dirt road, the difference in jaguar and jaguar prey species detections was considerable. Of the preferred jaguar prey species listed, only deer were present in the swamp habitat, and while jaguar detections were higher here than in the submontane forest and agricultural areas, they were still considerably lower than in the neighboring lowland forest. The agricultural areas of Blue Creek only consisted of approximately 8% of the study area. In order to proportionally distribute the cameras among the habitat types based on size, the agriculture habitat received only one camera station. These areas mostly contained milpa farms (multi-crop fields that are routinely slashed and burned) and milpa buffer zones on the edge of other habitat types. The residents’ farms were randomly spread out in the study area among all habitat types, which caused them to be difficult to survey. Many small mammal species,
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including preferred jaguar prey species, were present in these areas, perhaps lured by the abundance of crops and fruit. Many local hunters stated that they frequently hunted on or near their farms, because of the abundance of game species present. Another note of interest in our findings is the similar hourly activity patterns of humans and jaguars in the study area. While most previous studies have shown that jaguars are predominantly active at night (Harmsen et al., 2009; Scognamillo et al., 2002; Nunez et al., 2002; Maffei et al., 2002), the jaguars in this study were very rarely active at night. The majority of jaguar sightings occurred between the hours of 13:00-18:00, coinciding with high human activity around the village. Alternatively, preferred prey species were found to be mostly nocturnal (except for deer), and neither jaguars nor prey species showed geographic variation in their activity patterns. The diurnal jaguar activity patterns could potentially be attributed to temporal avoidance of puma in the area or a change in hunting habits and prey selection, as two kill sites were observed in which jaguars had eaten iguana during the day. Nevertheless, the contrast in hourly activity patterns between the diurnal jaguars of Blue Creek and the nocturnal jaguars in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (Harmsen et al., 2009) warrants further investigation. Although the human-jaguar conflict in this community was relatively low, it still poses a risk to both jaguars and humans in the area. The lack of cattle is the likely cause of low conflict numbers, but the smaller livestock and dogs present in this community remain critically important to the wellbeing of village residents. Chickens are the largest source of meat for the community, and dogs aid the men in hunting and tracking game species. The continued education of residents on the importance of fencing in their free-ranging chickens and dogs could
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help prevent more attacks from happening in the future, thus also reducing the need for retaliatory killings of jaguars. Overall perception of jaguars from respondents of Blue Creek was largely positive, and the combination of cultural, ecological, and economic importance of jaguars to the community likely played a role in their perception. However, the majority of Maya communities do not have enough eco-tourism to provide economic incentives to the village in return for supporting environmental sustainability and conservation. Therefore, it would be interesting for future studies to investigate how much of a role economic support plays in community jaguar perception by also surveying Maya villages that do not have substantial eco-tourism. Nonetheless, Blue Creek has shown the positive effects that eco-tourism can have on both the local communities and the environment. The Maya region of Southern Belize contains a mosaic of communities interwoven among fragmented forests and protected areas. The Southern Belize Corridor (SBC), Panthera’s least-cost jaguar corridor, runs through the southern edge of the Maya region. It begins approximately 20km north of Punta Gorda, and runs south to the Belize – Guatemala border. Currently, Blue Creek is not included in the designated corridor, but with the evidence of jaguar presence documented by this study, the inclusion of Blue Creek and surrounding communities into the SBC should be investigated.
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CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION The future of jaguars in Belize, and the Maya region specifically, will depend upon the preservation of suitable habitat and ensuring adequate connectivity between neighboring forests. Additionally, preventative measures taken by village residents to fence in free-ranging animals will help reduce the risk of human-jaguar conflict and thus the need for lethal persecution. With jaguars being found closer and closer to human settlements, the need for community involvement in conservation efforts remains high. Economic incentives (e.g. ecotourism) have shown to have a positive effect on Blue Creek’s perception of jaguars; however, investigation of other Maya communities is needed to develop a comprehensive jaguar conservation plan for the region. Nevertheless, continuing education on the ecological importance of jaguars for both the environment and communities, combined with communitybased conservation initiatives, can help secure the future preservation and stability of jaguar populations in Southern Belize.
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APPENDIX
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Resident Survey
Background 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
What is your age? What is your occupation? What is your educational background? What is your religious affiliation? Do you have children? If so, how many?
Jaguar Knowledge/Perceptions 6. Are you worried about jaguars living near the village? 7. Do you feel like jaguars are a danger to you, your family, or animals? 8. Do you feel like having jaguars around is beneficial to the environment? 9. Are jaguars important to your Maya culture? 10. Do you feel like jaguars are beneficial to the ecotourism of the village? 11. Are you able to distinguish jaguars from other native cat species? (photographs were provided to test this)
Human-Jaguar Interactions 12. Have you seen any jaguars in the past two years? 13. Where have you seen them? 14. Do you hunt game species near the village? 15. Have you ever had a conflict with a jaguar? 16. Have you ever lost an animal from a jaguar? 17. Have you ever hunted or killed a jaguar? 18. If so, why?
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8.1: Jaguar in lowland tropical forest – camera 10.
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8.2: Jaguar in lowland tropical forest – camera 12a.
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8.3: Jaguar in swamp/wetland – camera 3.
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8.4: Jaguar in lowland forest – Camera 12b.
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