Elsevier

Biological Conservation

Volume 141, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 118-125
Biological Conservation

Cattle depredation by puma (Puma concolor) and jaguar (Panthera onca) in central-western Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2007.09.015Get rights and content

Abstract

In this study, data on cattle depredation by puma (Puma concolor) and jaguar (Panthera onca) were recorded for six years (1998–2003) in a cattle ranch in central-western Brazil. Depredation represented 18.9% of the overall cattle mortality, being predominant on calves. In biomass, kills represented 0.4% (63.8 kg/km2) of the ranch’s annual stock. In economic loss, kills represented 0.3% of the cattle stock value. Depredation was mainly associated with cattle’s age class and location along with the time of birth of calves. The proportion of pastures next to forest with depredation (n = 33, 48.5%) was not distinguished to the proportion of pastures not bordering forest with depredation (n = 35, 51.5%). However, the proportion of pastures next to forest with depredation represented 54% (n = 33) of the 61 total pastures that were at least partially surrounded by forest patches or riparian forests that comprised eight continuum blocks of forest fragments of different sizes in the ranch and adjacent areas. No kills occurred in the central portion (main house) of the farm, close to the headquarters where the pastures not bordering forest. The distances of the kills in relation to areas of native forest was 1317.48 ± 941.03 m. In order to reduce depredation, calves should be kept as far as possible from forest areas and concentrated cattle breeding and calving seasons should be encouraged.

Introduction

Domestic livestock lack virtually all of their ancestor’s anti-predator behaviors, and represent a relatively easily killed prey when compared to wild prey species of similar size (Linnell et al., 1999). Recently, most predator species have attacked the domestic livestock across the world. Livestock depredation has been caused by lions (Panthera leo), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), leopards (Panthera pardus), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) on ranches in Kenya (Patterson et al., 2004, Woodroffe et al., 2005, Kolowski and Holekamp, 2006), black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) in Tanzania (Holmern et al., 2007), tigers (Panthera tigris), Himalayan black bears (Ursus thibettanus), dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Bhutan (Wang and Mcdonald, 2006), and snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Nepal (Oli et al., 1994) and in Ladakh, Tibet and Mongolia (Jackson and Wangchuk, 2001). Livestock depredation by jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) has been recorded in Belize (Rabinowitz, 1986), in Venezuela (Hoogesteijn et al., 1993, Polisar et al., 2003), in Brazil (Mazzolli et al., 2002, Conforti and Azevedo, 2003, Zimmermann et al., 2005, Michalski et al., 2006, Palmeira and Barrella, 2007) and in other neotropical countries.

Cattle ranching has increased deforestation disproportionately in the Brazilian Cerrado, replacing natural areas with extensive pastures. These are interspersed with remaining fragments of forest, required as legal reserves. As a consequence, pumas and jaguars have to coexist with domestic cattle. However, landowners usually use cattle depredation as a reason to justify persecution of large cats (Quigley and Crawshaw, 1992, Silva, 1994), which are threatened in several regions in the Southern and central-western areas of Brazil (Quigley et al., 1988, Fonseca et al., 1994). This control has become the main reason for the demise of large felids, more so in areas not legally protected (Jackson and Nowell, 1996, Nowell and Jackson, 1996, Linnell et al., 1999). The Cerrado was considered by Sanderson et al. (1999) as one of the priority areas for jaguar study and conservation, due to the lack of knowledge on the species’ geographic range and population status. Despite this intense conflict, very few data have shown any significant economic loss resulting from cattle depredation (Mazzolli et al., 2002, Michalski et al., 2006, Palmeira and Barrella, 2007). Quantifying cattle depredation is fundamental to allow the implementation of management actions so as to minimize losses and to guarantee the conservation of these cats. In this context, the main objectives of this study were to determine: (1) the actual proportion of cattle killed by large felids; (2) the age distribution of the cattle killed; (3) the temporal distribution of depredation to throughout the year; and (4) the spatial distribution of cattle depredation through the landscape mosaic.

Section snippets

Study area

This study was carried out at the Fazenda Ouro Branco, located in the municipality of Bonópolis in Northern Goiás, in central-western Brazil (Fig. 1). Currently, soybean (Glycine max) and cattle (approximately 90,000 heads) are the main economic activities in the region.

Bonópolis is located in a transitional area between the Cerrado and the Amazon Forest biomes in the Araguaia river basin (Dinerstein et al., 1995, IBGE, 2002). The climate is hot, semi-humid, with four months of the year

Cattle mortality

Cattle mortality was classified into two major categories: depredation by felids and other causes. Mortality by other causes included diseases, malnutrition, ingestion of toxic plants, lightning, malpractice during vaccination, diastolic parturition, and snake bites. From January 1998 to December 2002, loss by depredation was lower than the accumulated losses by other causes (242 and 1041, respectively) (Fig. 2).

From January 1998 to December 2003, total depredation was 309 heads. Average annual

Discussion

Several researches have indicated that diseases, malnutrition and accidents are the main reasons for higher mortalities than attacks by large cats (Schaller, 1983, Quigley and Crawshaw, 1992, Hoogesteijn et al., 1993, Oli et al., 1994, Mazzolli et al., 2002). Cattle depredation by pumas and jaguars represented 18.9 % (n = 242) of the total cattle mortality at Fazenda Ouro Branco during the five-year period (1998–2002). This is higher than the depredation recorded by Polisar et al. (2003) (13% of

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the World Wildlife Fund – Brazil (WWF – Brazil), the Ford Foundation (Grant # CSR 268-2002), Idea Wild (Grant # 676), Fazenda Ouro Branco, Ernesto Beilich, and Benvinda Belem Lopes for their support to this study. We also would like to thank Cristiano T. Trinca, Ana Maria T. Trinca, Marcia C. Trapé-Cardoso, Olga Z. Zumstein, Antonio Zumstein, Valdemar L. Tornisielo, Carlos A. Vetorazzi, Roberta O.A. Valente and Saulo Salgado for their help, suggestions and comments. Bruna

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