Factors affecting big cat hunting in Brazilian protected areas

Abstract

We surveyed Brazilian protected areas to assess the scale of big cat hunting within the National Protected Areas System. A questionnaire was emailed to managers of 297 reserves, with a response rate of 33.7%. One-third of respondents reported that jaguars (Panthera onca) and/or pumas (Puma concolor) have been hunted recently (i.e., within the last two years) in their reserves, resulting in the deaths of at least 60 cats. Hierarchical partitioning analysis revealed that degree of restriction to human use in the reserve (as a four-level rank variable) was the most important factor affecting the probability of a manager reporting big cat hunting, with hunting reported three times more frequently in the less restrictive reserves than in the more restrictive ones. Though our study represents only a small fraction of the problem, it confirms that hunting is widespread and represents a threat to carnivore conservation within Brazilian protected areas. © Elildo Alves Ribeiro de Carvalho Jr and Ronaldo Gonçalves Morato.