Avaliação da influência dos atributos da paisagem no uso do habitat pelo Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) no Sudeste do Brasil

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities are directly associated with fragmentation and habitat loss, creating a mosaic of different land uses that cause biodiversity loss. The jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) is a neotropical cat that can be found in the main Brazilian biomes, and some studies indicate that the species is adaptable to a variety of habitat types, and may even be tolerant to human disturbances. We used camera traps and occupancy models to assess landscape attributes that could influence the habitat occupancy probability by jaguarundi in 13 landscapes of the Atlantic Forest and Brazilian Cerrado, considering both the local scale of heterogeneity of the sampled points and the percentage of native vegetation existing at the scale of each landscape, and exploring the factors that could influence the probability of detection of the species. The probability of occupancy of the species was not influenced by any anthropic attribute, and the species used the locations regardless of the type of surrounding anthropic activity, which on the one hand reinforces a certain tolerance of the species to external factors. However, the probability of occupancy was positively correlated with the area of forest formation in a buffer of 100 meters around the sampled locations, suggesting that a minimum amount of forest is necessary for the species to use the habitats. However, the occupancy probability was positively correlated with the forest formation area in a 100-meter buffer around the sampled locations, suggesting that a minimum amount of forest is necessary for the species to be present. The detection probability of the species was higher in the rainy season when compared to the dry season, which may be related to a more homogeneous distribution of its prey during the rainy season. During this period, water is more abundant and less restricted to the more humid places and, therefore, it allows the jaguarundi to be less restricted to specific places, moving more and increasing the probability of being recorded by the cameras. Although our findings suggest an adaptation of the jaguarundi to a variety of habitat types, studies that relate how the species distribution varies in different degrees of intensity and types of anthropic activities, evaluating the ecological thresholds (e.g., amount of native vegetation and distance to impacts) necessary for the occurrence of the species, and that also evaluate the interspecific relationships with native and exotic competing species are needed.