Tourism-supported working lands sustain a growing jaguar population in the Colombian Llanos.

ABSTRACT: Understanding large carnivore demography on human-dominated lands is a priority to inform conservation strategies, yet few studies examine long-term trends. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are one such species whose population trends and survival rates remain unknown across working lands. We integrated nine years of camera trap data and tourist photos to estimate jaguar density, survival, abundance, and probability of tourist sightings on a working ranch and tourism destination in Colombia. We found that abundance increased from five individuals in 2014 to 28 in 2022, and density increased from 1.88 ± 0.87 per 100 km² in 2014 to 3.80 ± 1.08 jaguars per 100 km² in 2022. The probability of a tourist viewing a jaguar increased from 0% in 2014 to 40% in 2020 before the Covid-19 p

SUBMITTER: Hyde M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10300083 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature