Esteban Payan

Measuring Impact and Sustainability of Amazon Hunting in Colombia

Black jaguar in Caatinga habitat, Amazonas, Colombia.

Ocelot walking by night. Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) double the number of jaguars in the study site, they seem to have recovered well from the slaughter they suffered in the decades of the 60’s and 70’s caused by the fur coat demand.

Puma (Puma concolor). In eight months of camera trapping pumas only appeared in pictures from two separate weeks, although with several photos each.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
Amacayacu National Park (ANP) and Calderon River Valley (CRV)ColombiaCentral and Latin America, Hunting26 Oct 2006

Like most top carnivores, jaguars (Panthera onca), pumas (Puma concolor) and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) are threatened by habitat loss, hunting, and prey competition with humans. The Colombian Amazon (403,000 km2) is the stronghold for these species in the country, but only 10 % is legally protected. This is insufficient to ensure their long term survival, due to their large area requirements, thus the populations in unprotected areas are key for their survival.

The Amazon basin is an area one of the most affected by the so called “bush meat crisis” and the levels of hunting in the Colombian region remain unchecked.

The effects of human hunting are evaluated through structured interviews in with hunters, weekly hunting harvest records in villages and through monitoring wildlife and levels of disturbance using a combination of camera trapping and spoor surveys. Jaguar and ocelot are recognized from their coat pattern and thus camera trapping data from these species is evaluated by capture-recapture statistics to produce abundance and density estimates. Unmarked carnivores and prey species are evaluated by Relative Abundance Indexes (RAIs) and compared between sites and habitats.

Spoor surveys are analyzed by relative abundance indexes based on sign per km sampled. Hunting harvests are evaluated against a sustainable harvest model for Neotropical wildlife proposed by Robinson and Redford (1991). Data from both sites are compared and associated to differing area protection levels and human resource extraction and exploitation impact. Results will be the first estimates of wild cat abundance for Colombia and one of the few from the Amazon basin, which will contribute to understanding the ecology of these secretive cats in rainforests. Data from prey species in areas with different levels of protection and facing different hunting threats posed from different ethnic groups will describe the scenario faced by wild cat populations in the Amazon today. This data will feed into an assessment towards the potential for unprotected areas to sustain cat populations in the face of increasing immigration into the Amazon.

The assessment of the sustainability of hunting of each cultural group will help to define management and conservation decisions and actions towards securing the continuation of this protein source for humans without degrading biodiversity levels. Finally, results will offer baseline population data for future monitoring actions and to initiate conservation sensitization programs and management for conservation.

For more information contact c.payan@ucl.ac.uk or visit http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/ioz/people/payan.htm

Project Update: July 2007

After 18 months of hard field work in the Colombian Amazon, and under severe delays due to the logistical and cultural challenges of doing camera trapping in the Amazon, the project has produced 2,894 camera trap nights in two survey areas. An unprotected area, Amacayacu National Park (ANP) with 1,758 trap nights (using 18 stations) and an unprotected area, Calderon River Valley with 1,211 (28 stations). The second camera trapping session was conducted, for the first time in the Amazon, in the wet season. Many jaguar, puma and ocelot photographs were produced, with highlights such as several pictures of black jaguars, pregnant female jaguars and the first data on big cat use of Caatinga habitat recorded by camera traps. The survey area included and enclave of extra sunny white sand habitat composed of short and thin trees, known as Caatinga. Since 2002, this type of habitats has been prioritized as to develop research on understanding how cats, particularly jaguars use it, and if at all. Well, my project found that they love it! In 20 days too pictures of 3 adult jaguars, included a pregnant female and a adult puma going to sun bathe and to nap on non sandy parts that were covered by moss and ferns!

Many dozens of prey species pictures were also developed and these numbers will inform about the cats’ prey base status. Including first time pictures of very rare species such as the short eared dog (Atelocynus microtis) and the little known species such as giant armadillos, and terrestrial birds such as Spix’s guan, razor-billed and nocturnal curassows and trumpeters. All these species are also included in the indigenous hunters menu, so measuring their abundance as well as the hunting pressure will tells us the impact of this hunting. Several hundredths of km of tracking and more than ten month of hunting data were also collected. All this data is in the process of being analyzed now.

Final Report

Read about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

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Final Report699 KB

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