A onça-pintada (Panthera onca) em paisagens fragmentadas do cerrado: o caso da região do Parque Nacional das Emas

Abstract

Rapid changes in landscape structure and composition pose the greatest threat to biodiversity on a global scale. These changes usually lead to habitat loss, fragmentation and isolation of patches of native vegetation, the main threats to top predators in the food chain, which are species that naturally occur at low density and generally require large home areas. Thus, the increasing changes in natural habitats in recent decades have raised concerns about the conservation of these predators, which play an important role in the trophic cascade and regulation of their prey, affecting the community as a whole. A strategy designed to help conserve carnivores, as well as all biodiversity, was the creation of protected areas, where species can find refuges. However, studies have shown that these areas alone are not enough for the conservation of these species, therefore, they need to be inserted in permeable landscapes to obtain sufficient and adequate resources for their long-term persistence. Within this context, the general objective of this thesis focused on monitoring a population of an endangered carnivore species, the jaguar (Panthera onca), and on the analysis of some aspects that provide its survival. Thus, in the first chapter, population parameters were explored (density, distribution parameters between males and females and longevity) of jaguars from Emas National Park over a nine-year period of study, in an attempt to better understand the ecology of the species in Cerrado area. In the second chapter, the abundance of jaguar preferred prey species was evaluated over a nine-year interval and it was verified which environmental variables affected the occupation of these species, seeking to answer whether the availability of prey for jaguars is being maintained in the long term. The third chapter was developed using the landscape in which the Emas National Park is located, with the objective of understanding how this jaguar population has selected its habitats, considering landscape characteristics related to the species' ecological niche. The results obtained in the three chapters make it possible to identify critical elements for the development of management strategies for this population, in the sense of preventing this population from declining due to anthropic pressures in its surroundings or stochastic factors. The data presented represent an important step for a better understanding of jaguar ecology and demonstrate the importance of longer studies to generate crucial information for the local conservation of the species. In addition to helping to build a solid base for future studies on this species in the Cerrado Biome.