PhD Summary
The jaguar is listed as near-threatened, with populations believed to be
in rapid decline throughout Central and South America. As an elusive carnivore, population estimation is notoriously
difficult and there exists an acute paucity of status information across much
of the traditional range of this species. Effective conservation management without
baseline population data is therefore particularly challenging. Mark-recapture
using camera traps is currently the only population estimation technique, and
so there is a fundamental requirement for the development of new survey methods,
and for a reliable system of extrapolating estimates to new areas.
This PhD will develop alternative methods
for the population survey of jaguar. The use of hair-trapped DNA as a basis for
mark-recapture will be evaluated, and the possibility of using photographic
based encounter-rates and accumulation curves to either replace or supplement
traditional mark-recapture techniques will be investigated. Factors influencing
jaguar density will be examined, and predictive models for the extrapolation of
jaguar population density estimates to new areas will be developed.
Establishing such methods will
potentially allow jaguar populations to be assessed over large areas – a key
component of fulfilling several priorities identified in the WCS Jaguar Conservation Program and the IUCN Species Survival Plan. Funding for this project is provided
by the Dalton Research Institute, MMU and the North of England Zoological
Society.
PhD Aims and Objectives
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