Comparing Cats: A Discussion of Similarities & Differences

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Dark Jaguar Offline

Jaguar Enthusiast

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#412

06-29-2021, 01:27 PM

ABOUT THE CAATINGA JAGUARS

Since Caatinga Jags population sizes was mentioned as well as the individual who starved to death I shall drop the biomass infos in the population from Serra da Capivara (PI) Brazil for the readers to know it .

Pantanal and Caatinga connections.

Brazil is a massive country and Pantanal and Caatinga biomes have no proximity to one another, one biome is located in Midwest Brazil and the other in Northeast Brazil, The Cerrado being the second largest biome in the country only after the Amazon as it is located in Central Brazil the Cerrado connects to all other biomes in Brazil except Pampas which is located in the far south (and its jags are currently extinct), So Caatinga and Pantanal have no connection.

As other species of big cats that adapts to certain environments (humid, hot, cold, wet...) The Caatinga jaguars are specially adapted for the Caatinga biome and I like them alot, as some already know they got some very interesting traits such as stiffer/harder whiskas, their paw pads are rougher, flat and with more fur (furry) on the paw pads for protection to the soil as although in Caatinga there's naturally forests in some places have a more exposed ground/soil which is very hot like the temperature as well as the dense and thorny vegetation so the jaguar also adapted for their bodies to withstand more days without food and water than in other biomes because they gotta be durable to the heat, to the little water availability, to the food they got which sometimes in some regions are scarce to find. So all they need is a small body and as Cláudia the field Biologist of Caatinga jags/pumas at Boqueirão da Onça National Park (BA) says ''If you bring a Pantanal jaguar to Caatinga it will die, it wouldn't survive in our woods but the Caatinga vegetation is also considered as a forest.''

Caatinga jags from Serra da Capivara mean prey size.

From: What are jaguars eating in a half-empty forest? Insights from diet in an overhunted Caatinga reserve

By: Everton B. P. Miranda, Anah Tereza de Almeida Jácomo, Natália Mundim Tôrres, Giselle Bastos Alves, Leandro Silveira

Year: 2018

https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-m...y027.short

Abstract

''Persistence of top predators in protected areas requires healthy populations of prey species. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are top predators in the Caatinga dry forest, a xeric domain in northeastern Brazil. Poaching is a threat to populations of jaguar prey in the Caatinga, but it is still widely popular among locals. Here, we investigated molecularly identified jaguar scats to assess prey composition in a protected area where large prey has been heavily depleted or driven extinct by poaching. We also make direct comparisons between trophic niche width and mean prey size through a literature review. We show that over 90% of the diet of jaguars was comprised of prey under 5 kg, mainly armadillos. Furthermore, we found that the values of trophic niche width (2.21) and mean prey size (5.23 kg) in our study area are among the lowest ever described for jaguars in the literature. Our results demonstrated that jaguars are able to shift their diet to small prey when larger quarry is scarce. However, subsisting in such a stressful trophic position may lead to decreased levels of recruitment and low emigration rate. Breeding females would have difficulty raising cubs without abundant large prey. If jaguars are to persist in the Caatinga, effective actions to reduce poaching inside protected areas and corridors must be implemented. One of the most important jaguar populations in this domain inhabits our study site, and prey conservation is paramount for long-term persistence of this top predator in the Caatinga.''

Prey base in the Past.

''In Serra da Capivara, prey species in the past included medium-sized vertebrates such as white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari), collared peccaries, brocket deer (Mazama guazoubira), giant anteaters, and rheas (Rhea americana americana—Olmos 1992); all are considered game species in the Caatinga (Alves et al. 2016). However, poaching has eliminated rheas from the park, and while-white lipped peccaries were absent for decades (Wolff 2001; Astete 2008) before recolonizing the area during 2009–2010 (Astete 2012), occurring today in very low abundances. Reported as formerly abundant (Tega 2013), no live giant anteater had been observed in Serra da Capivara since 1994 (Wolff 2001); although extensive camera trapping revealed their existence in the park (Astete 2012), they are still considered functionally extinct.''

Modern days preybase

''We explored prey composition of jaguars in Serra da Capivara, a heavily poached park that still retains most jaguar prey species in low abundances. Our goals were 2-fold: 1) assess current prey composition, prey body size, and trophic niche width of jaguars in Serra da Capivara, and 2) compare such traits with jaguar diets reported in other studies. We predicted that depleted prey communities would lead to small prey sizes and narrow trophic niche width for this jaguar population.

Results

''From 93 scat samples collected in Serra da Capivara, 52 could be molecularly attributed to 16 jaguars (9 males, 7 females). Prey composition based on 50 scat samples that had food content was dominated by yellow armadillos (E. sexcinctus), which represented 64% of eaten prey and 52% of biomass consumed. With a frequency of 22%, lesser anteater was the second most important prey in frequency. Although collared peccaries appeared in 10% of the scats, they represented the same amount of biomass as lesser anteaters (22% for both species). Other smaller-sized prey comprised the rest of the diet (Table 1); 91.3% of this amount was comprised of species under 5 kg.''

*This image is copyright of its original author

Caatinga specimens from Serra da Capivara National Park, area which possesses a high density of melanistic jaguars of 23% (Samuel Enrique Astete Perez et al).

*This image is copyright of its original author

NOTE: This study was done only with the population from Serra da Capivara National Park (PI), There's also other areas of Caatinga where very small population of jags still exists such as in Boqueirão da Onça National Park (BA) and in Serra das Confusões National park (PI).

Though the melanistic 43 kg adult male Caatinga jag (Lampião) who unfortunately died by starvation he was from Serra da Capivara National Park (PI), same area of that study.

Something interesting to note regarding the size variation that occurs here is at same time Caatinga jaguars are the smallest, their neighbours population who got more resources, from what we gathered possesses the currently second largest (in body size/mass) population of jaguars inside Brazil ( The Cerrado Jaguar ) only behind Pantanal jaguars ( and behind Porto Primavera jaguars too before the whole flood mess ). So the size difference variation is huge and very interesting.

And as in addition to that an interesting mention of the biologist Cláudia that in the Caatinga/Cerrado proximity/transition in the region of Serra das Confusões, Caracol, Raimundo Nonato located a little bit north of the Serra das Capivaras in Piauí, Caatinga Jags/Pumas in the proximity with the area of Cerrado that has a bit more resources sometimes they migrate from one biome end up moving into the other biome but its much more common to happen with Pumas.

Current estimates indicates that the density of jaguars can vary from one individual per 100 km2, as determined by the CENAP/ICMBio team in the region of Boqueirão da Onça, to 3 individuals per 100 km2, in the region of the Serra da Capivara National Park, an estimate made by the team of the IOP from (GO).

What plays major negative role regarding the very small population (in numbers) of Caatinga jags is deforestation but also without a doubt the hunting and poaching, as hunting is part of the culture of the residents from the Caatinga biome with hunters even competing against themselves and conflicts with caatinga jaguars, pumas, ocelots... occurs throughout the history directly and indirectly (massive hunting of its natural preys to consume their meat such as deers, armadillos, agouti, pecaris). Around the Caatinga area of Boqueirão da Onça in north Bahia, the region also serves for hunters as a source for species that are destined for illegal wild animal trafficking.

Now biologists from Amigos da Onça Program by Pró Carnívoros like Cláudia, Carol Esteves... with the support of the CENAP team are through the boqueirões, cactus, nettles, thorns and under the intense sun of the sertão of Bahia doing studies that aims to create a conservation planning unit by forming an ecological corridor and connect caatinga jags/pumas population together from Boqueirão da Onça (BA) to Serra da Capivara (PI) and to Serra das Confusões (PI) to allow the genetic exchanges from their individuals.

So just like all other cat species which also has this in common there's a whole adaptation to the environment overall, but what all got in common is that their main forced adaptation really comes from the massive destruction done by the humans. So their adaptation in this scenario gotta be on another level.

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