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Abstract
During the period April 2009 - June 2015, we placed trail cameras at 61 sites in a 441 km2 area in northwestern Sonora, Mexico. We used the total number of jaguars captured/100 days of camera effort as the basis for a year-to-year evaluation of the status of the area’s jaguar population. A T-test comparison between the first and last 365 days of the camera trapping effort documented a significant difference between the two time periods for jaguar presence (P= 0.01, t= 2.56). We documented the illegal killing of six jaguars and detected a 71% decline of the population. With a lack of enforcement of law, poisons and traps are being illegally used by ranchers to kill predators. GPS collars can provide an investigative tool if needed in attempts to prosecute a person suspected of killing a jaguar or puma. We recommend that as many Sonoran jaguars as possible be collared with GPS combined with an education program that allows community school children to track and follow jaguars.
Parent Publication
Keywords
forest restoration,
history,
climate,
soils,
vegetation,
geomorphology,
watersheds,
water quality,
water quantity,
fluvial ecosystems,
fish and invertebrate fauna,
riparian ecosystems
Citation
Cassaigne, Ivonne; Childs, Jack; Sanderson, Jim; Thompson, Ron; Thompson, Kyle; Galaz, Manuel. 2022. The decline of a Jaguar (Panthera onca) subpopulation in Sonora Mexico. In: Neary, D. G.; Gottfried, G. J., eds. Collaboration Now for the Future: IV Conference on the Biodiversity and Management of the Madrean Archipelago. Proceedings RMRS-P-79. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 92-95.
