J. Antonio de la Torre

The jaguar's spots are darker than they appear: assessing the global conservation status of the jaguar Panthera onca

The IUCN Red List is widely used to guide conservation policy and practice. However, in most cases the evaluation of a species using IUCN Red List criteria takes into account only the global status of the species. Although subpopulations may be assessed using the IUCN categories and criteria, this rarely occurs, either because it is difficult to identify subpopulations or because of the effort involved. Using the jaguar Panthera onca as a model we illustrate that wide-ranging species that are assigned a particular category of threat based on the IUCN Red List criteria may display considerable heterogeneity within individual taxa in terms of the level of risk they face. Using the information available on the conservation status of the species, we evaluated the jaguars current geographical range and its subpopulations. We identified the most threatened subpopulations, using the extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, population size and the level of threat to each subpopulation. The main outcome of this analysis was that although a large subpopulation persists in Amazonia, virtually all others are threatened because of their small size, isolation, deficient protection and the high human population density. Based on this approach, future conservation efforts can be prioritized for the most threatened subpopulations. Based on our findings we recommend that for future Red List assessments assessors consider the value of undertaking assessments at the subpopulation level. For the jaguar, sub-global assessments should be included on the Red List as a matter of urgency.

Jaguars Panthera onca in the Greater Lacandona Ecosystem, Chiapas, Mexico: population estimates and future prospects

Jaguar Panthera onca populations have declined severely in Mexico because of habitat loss and poaching of the species and its natural prey. One of the most important, but poorly known, populations of the jaguar remaining in Mexico resides in the Greater Lacandona Ecosystem in Chiapas. Our objective was to determine the density of jaguars in southern Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve and to estimate population size inside the Natural Protected Areas of this Ecosystem. Jaguar densities were estimated during the dry and rainy seasons of 2007 and the dry season of 2008 using camera-trapping combined with closed capture-recapture models. The lowest density estimate was recorded during the 2007 dry season (1.7 ± SE 0.7 per 100 km²) and the highest during the 2008 rainy season (4.6 ± SE 1.6 per 100 km²). Estimating the extent of potential jaguar habitat in the Natural Protected Areas and extrapolating density estimates to these reserves indicates that they could support 62–168 jaguars. This result highlights the potential importance of this Ecosystem for the conservation of the jaguar in the Mayan Forest and Mexico. The implementation of measures to secure the long-term conservation of this population and jaguar population connectivity in the Mayan Forest is urgently required.

Pteronotus personatus (Chiroptera: Mormoopidae)

Abstract Pteronotus personatus (Wagner, 1843) is a mormoopid bat commonly called Wagners mustached bat. A small bat, fully furred, it is 1 of 6 species in the genus Pteronotus. This species ranges from the most tropical regions of Mexico to South America across northern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana and through northwestern Colombia, and in a band across Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, as far south as the Mato Grosso. It is frequently associated with watercourses and dense vegetation and prefers hot, humid caves and mines for roosting sites. It is considered a species of “Least Concern,” but the status of many populations is uncertain.

Follow me: foraging distances of Leptonycteris yerbabuenae (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in Sonora determined by fluorescent powder

Nightly movements of bats have been described for only a handful of species around the world. The lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) is a migratory pollinator recently delisted from threatened status in Mexico and proposed in early 2017 to be delisted from endangered status in the United States. Documenting the nightly movements of these bats and how they use the desert ecosystem when they spend the summer in Sonora, Mexico, is critical for protection of their habitat and to understand food availability and landscape use. We used inert fluorescent powder to mark thousands of bats emerging from a cave used as a day roost, then examined bats captured at known foraging sites for this marker. We also marked individuals captured at foraging sites with different colors of powder that enabled us to search for dyed feces in the cave. Our results demonstrate that these bats made round trips of ca. 100 km flying from their roost cave to their nightly foraging grounds, which exceeds all distances known from other phyllostomid or nectar-feeding bats in the world.