About This Project
This camera-trapping study will assess the effects of tropical land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) on jaguar (Panthera onca) in the Piedras region of Madre de Dios, Peru. Over 400 square kilometers of lowland Amazonian forest will be surveyed around the remote community of Lucerna that is practicing rampant deforestation for agriculture. This survey will form a baseline for regional forest preservation and felid conservation, leading to direct conservation action and policy modification.
Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
The Amazon holds more than 50% of earth’s tropical forests, which are experiencing some of the world’s highest rates of deforestation. The Piedras region is the Amazon's second largest extent of rainforest, and despite rapid immigration since the construction of the interoceanic highway, it remains a critical biodiversity hotspot. Habitat fragmentation has adverse impacts on wildlife, many of which have gone undocumented in remote and unprotected areas of the Amazon.
Because felids are elusive, sometimes nocturnal, and inhabit interior forest away from human activity, they are difficult to study. Camera trapping offers a unique and proven way to monitor wildlife populations because it is non-invasive, requires low personnel demand, and allows unbiased indicator estimation in remote areas.
What is the significance of this project?
- This survey will form a baseline for the regional conservation of threatened species, particularly jaguar, which is invaluable for the long-term monitoring of abundance, diversity, and density.
- Predators like jaguar provide a stabilizing function within ecosystems and increase biodiversity through trophic effects.
- Little research has been done on the impacts of human activities on cats in the tropics; no research has been published from the Piedras, making this study both globally important and locally novel.
- All current jaguar studies have occurred in protected areas.
- Conservation policies could be improved, including delineating protected areas and wildlife corridors that would better protect local populations by allowing dispersal, gene flow, and protection from hunting
What are the goals of the project?
This camera trapping study has the following goals: estimate jaguar population densities and home ranges, assess the impacts of development activities on local cat populations, examine the relationship between cat abundance and habitat type, and compare the relationship between cat abundance and distribution to the relative occupancy of cat prey. Accomplishing these goals will establish accurate habitat preference data and gather cat resistance information to areas of various anthropogenic influences.
Budget
I will use the donations from this fundraiser to hire a Peruvian field assistant and pay for motorbike gas whilst in Peru.
From my experience and perspective, you cannot put a price on a dependable and skillful assistant. Not only do I learn a great deal from each jungle expert I've worked with, but they too gain knowledge from the projects we complete together and are able to further their career aspirations. I plan to be in the Piedras for three months next summer, and will be in need of a field assistant for approximately half of my time there. At $20 per day, I will need approximately $900 for this assistant's help and support.
The remaining $300 will cover transportation and gas fees while surveying the study site north of Lucerna. It is important to note that all technology and equipment has been funded by grants. All that remains to be supported is a field assistant and transport costs within the country to make this project a success.
Meet the Team
Affiliates
Samantha Zwicker
Samantha Zwicker is a Ph.D. student researching ecology and conservation at the University of Washington in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences while pursuing separate Nonprofit Management and International Development certificates from the UW Evans School. She received her bachelor’s with honors from the UW in 2012 and her master's in June of 2015 after being awarded the College's Graduate Student of the Year.
In addition to teaching environmental studies and environmental science courses at the UW, she is President of Xi Sigma Pi Forestry Honors Society, a term member of the renowned Explorers Club, producer of Seattle's Inspiración del Perú, and co-founder and President of nonprofit Hoja Nueva. Samantha’s fieldwork is based primarily in the Amazon rainforest along the Piedras River in Peru, where she is working with remote communities to establish more sustainable farming methods while concurrently assessing the effects of land use change on cats and their prey using in-situ observation and camera trapping.
Hoja Nueva is led by novel, practical research in conservation and agroforestry. Their mission is to work with local communities to make sustainable agriculture a success in the Piedras and all remote rainforest environments like it- firstly by creating a sustainable cacao marketplace with direct, just trade values.
The urgency of conserving the earth's rainforests now goes beyond cultural and wildlife preservation. As a component of the recent Paris accord on climate change, protecting the Amazon rainforest is vital and of high potential, but more in-situ research is necessary in coupled human-environment systems in the Amazon's most biodiverse and healthy forests. Hoja Nueva consults and cooperates with local agricultural associations and other nonprofit organizations to ensure reliable food production while maintaining healthy forests, creating a future where both humans and nature can thrive.
Lab Notes
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Additional Information
Project Backers
- 5Backers
- 14%Funded
- $160Total Donations
- $32.00Average Donation