{"id":26844,"date":"2019-08-21T09:28:26","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T14:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=26844"},"modified":"2019-08-21T09:28:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T14:28:26","slug":"panama-risks-becoming-broken-link-intercontinental-wildlife-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/panama-risks-becoming-broken-link-intercontinental-wildlife-route\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama Risks Becoming a Broken Link in an Intercontinental Wildlife Route"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jaguar is one of the large mammals that are under stress because the Central American wildlife corridor has become fragmented. Credit: Eduardo Estrada, Wildlife and Conservation Photographer.<\/p>\n

The expansion of human populations has left animals such as white-lipped peccaries, jaguars, giant anteaters, white-tailed deer and tapirs isolated throughout Panama, a study<\/a> recently published in Conservation Biology<\/em> found. The nation represents the narrowest portion of a system of protected areas and connecting corridors that extend through the length of Central America and part of Mexico, known as the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC).<\/p>\n

To assess the health of the corridor, the paper focused on nine species of medium-to-large terrestrial mammals and determined their connectivity\u2014defined as current population distributions in different habitats, movement among habitats and the capability to interbreed. Pumas, red brocket deer, ocelots and collared peccaries, which are more adaptable, were present in more territories, the study determined, but they were also affected by the habitat fragmentation occurring in Panama. \u201cThe results strongly suggest that the bridge [through Panama] is broken,\u201d says ecologist Ninon Meyer, who was the lead author of the study and\u00a0recently\u00a0received her\u00a0Ph.D. from\u00a0the\u00a0College of the Southern Border\u00a0in Mexico. \u201cUntil a few decades ago, many of these large mammal species still occurred continuously throughout the isthmus\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n

Now the animals live in forest \u201cislands,\u201d surrounded by cattle ranches, fields of crops, roads and other human developments that jeopardize their ability to move from one place\u2014and, correspondingly, from one group\u2014to another. \u201cThe habitat fragmentation prevents animal movement and gene flow between populations, which can be detrimental to their long-term survival,\u201d Meyer explains.<\/p>\n

Panama has always played a crucial role in the movement and gene flow of numerous neotropical forest species. When the Isthmus of Panama, connecting North and South America, emerged about 2.8 million years ago, the event led to the Great American Biotic Interchange, allowing species to migrate between the two continents.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an ecological and evolutionary point of view, the Isthmus of Panama is extremely important,\u201d says Alberto Yanosky, a wildlife biologist at Paraguay\u2019s National Council of Science and Technology, who was not involved in the new study. Nevertheless, until now, there was a lack of scientific evidence that highlighted Panama’s key role in maintaining these connected habitats and the country\u2019s impact on the entire MBC\u2014which begins in southeastern Mexico and goes all the way down to Panama\u2019s border with Colombia. The study fills that void, he says, and also proposes a different way of analyzing the concept of connectivity, taking multiple species and their dispersal patterns into account\u2014an approach Yanosky will start to incorporate in his own research and teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first attempt to estimate how well the narrowest part of the MBC functions as a corridor for large mammals. It comes at an important time, when the results could influence where reforestation to increase carbon storage would also provide connectivity,\u201d says Paul Beier, an expert in the design of wildlife corridors and a professor of conservation biology at Northern Arizona University. \u201cThe study suggests that for several species of large mammals, the narrowest part of the MBC\u2014namely, the section in Panama\u2014might not be an effective corridor,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

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To assess the connectivity of these nine mammal species throughout Panama, 418 camera stations were located in 28 forested areas to record the animals\u2019 presence between 2012 and 2017. \u201cWe place the cameras, mainly, on trails and along streams where we know the animals travel,\u201d says Ricardo Moreno, a wildlife biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and a co-author of the study. In other places, the cameras were located in a grid, separated by specific distances. \u201cThe cameras have sensors that detect heat and movement,\u201d Moreno adds. \u201cEvery time an animal passes in front of the camera, it is photographed.\u201d For more than a decade, Moreno, who also leads a foundation called Yaguar\u00e1 Panam\u00e1, has been part of a growing group of researchers who have been placing camera traps throughout Panama to study jaguars and other mammals in collaboration with universities and the country\u2019s environmental and agricultural development ministries.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamera trapping has really revolutionized the way we monitor wildlife,\u201d says Christopher Sutherland, a statistical ecologist \u00a0at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a co-author of the paper.\u00a0 He points out, however, that researchers cannot just rely on images from cameras to say if something is there or not. And that makes statistical models useful: \u201cWe use the locations where we do see species to develop an understanding of their detection probability, and that allows us to infer what the probability of the species\u2019 presence at locations where we didn\u2019t detect it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe could extrapolate our models, derived from empirical camera-trap data, and estimate the species\u2019 occurrence all across Panama, based on the landscape characteristics of the areas that were not surveyed,\u201d Meyer adds.<\/p>\n

The study uses, for the first time, a new metric developed by Sutherland: occupancy-weighted connectivity. It takes into account the species distribution\u2014the probability of a species being found in specific habitats\u2014and the information from the literature about how far animals can travel.<\/p>\n

The findings clearly show two areas in Panama still offer a healthy habitat for these species: Darien National Park in the southern part of the country and La Amistad International Park in its northern region. \u201cThey are the only areas left in Panama that still have all the species,\u201d Meyer says. \u201cUnfortunately, these two areas are very threatened now. Deforestation and the possibility of the construction of the Pan-American Highway through Darien are a cause of great concern,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

The two regions reside on opposing sides of the isthmus. Meanwhile the center of Panama is the most degraded region, especially the areas surrounding the Panama Canal basin. The\u00a0canal itself\u00a0should be passable to medium-to-large species, given its narrow width and absence of\u00a0currents. Yet the area is also heavily urbanized. Two\u00a0highways connect the cities of Col\u00f3n and Panama, constituting a barrier for wildlife movement. \u201cThe results show us where we need to pay more attention. These are the areas where we need to carry out research, conservation and education actions,\u201d Moreno says. The study determined that central Panama has a poor habitat for white-lipped peccaries, giant anteaters and three other species.<\/p>\n

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