Multi-species monitoring amidst agricultural change

 

Overview:

We are applying the Scat Detection Dog, fecal DNA and fecal hormone methodologies pioneered by our Center to monitor impacts of land conversion on movements and physiological health of large mammals of the Brazilian Cerrado Biodiversity Hotspot.  Initial work is focused on how Puma, Jaguar, Maned Wolf,

and Brazilian Tapir utilize the landscape matrix surrounding Emas National Park .  Long-term studies will assess how the abundance, distribution, and physiological health of these species vary in response to specific habitat features in and around Emas National Park , Goiás State , Brazil .

 

Background

The establishment of protected areas is one of the most effective tools available for conserving biological diversity and healthy ecosystem

processes.  While our ability to systematically plan reserve networks has improved in recent years, it remains unlikely that we will ever achieve a perfectly representative system of protected areas.  Species with large habitat requirements can rarely be supported in protected areas alone and mortality for large carnivores most often occurs outside of the reserves that theoretically provide them safe haven.  While the need to address environmental problems on a landscape scale is well-recognized, we know very little about how matrix lands actually contribute to the viability of populations. 

 

The Cerrado ecosystem has become Brazil ’s largest source of soybeans and pastureland, and a significant producer of rice, corn, and cotton.  It is also home to large numbers of unique and threatened species, and has traditionally been a stronghold for many of South America ’s large mammals.  In contrast to farming elsewhere in Brazil , the farms of the Cerrado are capital-intensive, large-scale, and mechanized.  Both the total area and the annual rate of native vegetation clearing in the Cerrado are greater than in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.  Removal of native grasslands and forest is about 880,000 square kilometers per year, an area roughly 1.6 times the size of France .  Protecting the last of this globally-important savannah will require options that can balance agricultural development with conservation.  

 

Like the agricultural heartland of the United States , the Cerrado has traditionally been underrepresented among protected areas.  An exception to this is the 132,000 hectare Emas National Park , a relatively large and well-protected nature reserve that is perhaps the best site in all of South America for viewing large, terrestrial mammals and unique species of birds.  With increasing agricultural expansion in the region immediately surrounding Emas, however, the size of natural unfragmented habitat is rapidly declining. 

 

Objectives:

The degree to which mosaic lands continue to enable movement is critical to persistence of the region’s wide-ranging species.  Scat detection dogs will be used to locate scat from puma, jaguar, maned wolf and tapir.  DNA extracted from scat, combined with our new scat-dog individual-matching technology, will be used to assess the abundance and distribution of each species.  Physiological health will be assessed using stress and reproductive hormones extracted from these same scat samples.  All data will be layered onto a Geographic Information System (GIS) to tie observed changes to the specific habitat features where scat

are collected. 

 

We hope that these combined methods will provide means of conducting rapid, long term species monitoring that increase our understanding of barriers to wildlife movement, as well as guide the prioritization of lands for protection and maintenance of key wildlife corridors.

 

For more information on this project, please visit http://students.washington.edu/cvynne.

 

 Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International, the Brazil Program of Conservation International, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.  Assistance in obtaining scat samples for training purposes has been provided by Leandro Silveira of the Jaguar Conservation Fund, the Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center , the Woodland Park Zoo, and Northwest Trek. 

Mammals of the Brazlian Cerrado

Dr. Sam Wasser, Heath Smith, Mike Price, Carly Vynne, Mariana Furtado, Claudia Ferro, Cyntia Kayo, Anah Jacomo