Forest cover mediates large and medium-sized mammal occurrence in a critical link of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

ABSTRACT: Connectivity of natural areas through biological corridors is essential for ecosystem resilience and biodiversity conservation. However, robust assessments of biodiversity in corridor areas are often hindered by logistical constraints and the statistical challenges of modeling data from multiple species. Herein, we used a hierarchical community occupancy model in a Bayesian framework to evaluate the status of medium and large-sized mammals in a critical link of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) in Costa Rica. We used camera traps deployed from 2013-2017 to detect 18 medium (1-15 kg) and 6 large (>15 kg) mammal species in a portion of two Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs) and the Corridor linking them. Camera traps operated for 16,904 trap nights across 209 stations, covering an are

SUBMITTER: Salom-Perez R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7996086 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature