This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An international team of researchers has produced the most comprehensive assessment to date of connectivity across the jaguar's range, identifying key habitats and movement corridors that could help guide conservation efforts for the Americas' largest cat. The study, published in Global Change Biology, used movement data from 172 GPS-collared jaguars to map the landscapes most important for maintaining connectivity between populations across the species' current range, which extends from Mexico to northern Argentina.
The researchers identified 307 core living areas that support high levels of predicted jaguar movement and 176 corridors linking those areas. Together, the results provide a range-wide picture of how jaguar populations may remain connected despite increasing habitat loss and fragmentation. The study's first author is Guilherme Costa Alvarenga of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford and Grupo de Pesquisa em Ecologia e Conservação de Felinos na Amazônia at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development (MISD) in Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil.
Senior authors and co-leaders are Żaneta Kaszta of the Department of Biology at the University of Southern Denmark, previously at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford, and Samuel Cushman, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Southern Denmark, previously at the University of Oxford. "Previous efforts to map connectivity across the jaguar's range relied largely on expert opinion," said Kaszta. "Our study is based on empirical movement data collected from jaguars across much of their range, allowing us to build a more biologically realistic picture of connectivity." The analysis reveals one overwhelmingly important stronghold: a vast connected landscape spanning parts of the Amazon, Llanos, Pantanal and Chaco regions.
Covering approximately 6.5 million square kilometers (2.5 million square miles) across 11 countries, this area ranked as the most important core habitat for jaguar connectivity and accounted for the vast majority of predicted movement density in the model. Outside this central stronghold, the picture was more fragmented. The researchers identified major connectivity gaps in parts of Mexico, Central America, Colombia and the Atlantic Forest.
Many jaguar populations in these regions appear increasingly isolated, raising concerns about long-term gene flow and population persistence. "Jaguars are in a stronger position than many other large carnivores because they still retain an extensive connected stronghold in South America," said Cushman. "However, our results show that connectivity is far from secure across the species' entire range.
Several regions now depend on relatively narrow connections that could be lost if habitat conversion continues." In addition to modeling connectivity between existing jaguar strongholds, the team also analyzed connectivity among 905 protected areas and Indigenous lands. This second modeling approach identified 507 potential corridors and highlighted locations where conservation action could strengthen future connectivity. The researchers found that the two approaches provided complementary information.
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