Monthly Achievement Report, GVI Costa Rica Expedition, 10 November 2012 Connecting the Spots on a Unique Jaguar Population

The abundance of green turtles, , that nest on Tortuguero beach, which has been on the increase since the 1980s, appears to be having an effect on the structure of the jaguar population. Turtles move slowly across the sand and thus are easy prey for jaguars. During the turtle nesting season, the beach appears to become a feasting ground, breaking down the usual social dynamics of the worlds 3rd largest feline and potentially drawing in some individuals whose usual range is centered somewhere further inland. Jaguars are more often than not solitary animals that may share parts of their range with a few other individuals. The range-sharing individuals may be of either sex, and usually will only been seen together if they are breeding or as cub and mother: juvenile jaguars may remain with the mother for up to 2 years. In some parts of their range, adult males are seen together, but as of yet, this is not considered as a common occurrence. Juvenile females will often establish a home range that heavily overlaps that of their mothers.

Figure 1. Molly and Cub only a mile away from Jalova Base

GVI has been monitoring the jaguar population through the use of camera traps since our move to Tortuguero in 2010. The project is still in its early stages but now, coupled with Stephanny Arroyos project, in collaboration with Panthera , to monitor jaguar activity across the whole of Tortuguero National Park. We are confident we are developing a better understanding of the social interactions of the jaguar population local to Jalova. Up until the last few months, GVI had identified 10 individual jaguars in an area of no more than 10km2. Obviously, this area will only be a small part of each of their ranges but to have seen such a high number may indicate a very dense population of jaguars. Some of the individuals have only been captured a couple of times and are likely to be transient, either looking to establish a range or to take advantage of the abundant prey, i.e the nesting turtles. However, early analysis of our results in 2012 suggest we have at least

4 resident individuals which have been seen individually and in various pairs; including 2 adult males (Alex and Luca) and 2 females (Molly and Eliana) which we believe are most likely to be mother and daughter. In addition to this, there also appears to be 2 juvenile males (Diego and Mario) that are less regularly captured on camera in the area but often seen travelling together.

Figure 2: Ceci and Gerardo caught together at mile 14.

In this last month we have captured 2 more jaguars (Ceci and Gerardo) on our northernmost camera. This pair had been captured together on a few occasions 2 miles further up the beach by Stephannys cameras, but never before had they been captured on GVIs cameras, thuswe now have 2 more jaguars to add to the Jalova family taking the total to 12. Whats more, we have also captured our first small cub, albeit through a blurry photo, with one of our resident females, Molly! It is still too early to draw any conclusions on the jaguar population in Jalova, and all we have at the moment are assumptions and small pieces of a very large puzzle. However, if the project continues to obtain results at the current rate, we believe we can paint a very interesting picture on a unique group of jaguars.