Coexistence of jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) in a tropical forest in south–eastern Mexico

The biological ranges of the jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor) overlap in the Yucatan Peninsula, corresponding to the most important population of jaguars in Mexico. The goal of this study in the El Eden Ecological Reserve (EER) was to investigate the factors that permit these two predators to coexist in the dense vegetation of medium–stature tropical forest and secondary forest in the north–eastern Yucatan Peninsula. We assessed their spatial and temporal overlap using Pianka’s index, and evaluated their habitat use by applying occupancy models. A total sampling effort of 7,159 trap–nights over 4 years produced 142 independent photographic records of jaguars, and 134 of pumas. The felids showed high to very high overlap in their use of different vegetation (0.68–0.99) and trail types (0.63–0.97) and in their activity patterns (0.81–0.90). However, their peak activity patterns showed some temporal separation. Time of day, particularly for peak activity time, was the best predictor to explain the coexistence of the felids in this habitat. While occupancy models showed that the presence of potential prey species and vegetation type could predict the presence of felids in the study area. Natural disturbances during 2010 (hurricane) and 2011 (fire) drastically changed habitat use and activity patterns, resulting in pumas and jaguars adjusting their resource–use and activity pattern through a strategy of mutual evasion

Método para acelerar o processo de obtenção de mudas de tungue - Aleurites fordii Hemsley.

bitstream/CPACT-2010/13007/1/mudas-tungue.pdfdezembro de 2008

A moral panic over cats

Some conservationists believe that free-ranging cats pose an enormous risk to biodiversity and public health and therefore should be eliminated from the landscape by any means necessary. They further claim that those who question the science or ethics behind their arguments are science deniers (merchants of doubt) seeking to mislead the public. As much as we share a commitment to conservation of biodiversity and wild nature, we believe these ideas are wrong and fuel an unwarranted moral panic over cats. Those who question the ecological or epidemiological status of cats are not science deniers, and it is a false analogy to compare them with corporate and right-wing special interests that perpetrate disinformation campaigns over issues, such as smoking and climate change. There are good conservation and public-health reasons and evidence to be skeptical that free-ranging cats constitute a disaster for biodiversity and human health in all circumstances. Further, there are significant and largely unaddressed ethical and policy issues (e.g., the ethics and efficacy of lethal management) relative to how people ought to value and coexist with cats and native wildlife. Society is better served by a collaborative approach to produce better scientific and ethical knowledge about free-ranging cats