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Protected areas serve as population strongholds for many large carnivores, with multi‐use landscapes along their borders forming the front‐lines of wildlife conservation. Understanding large carnivore population dynamics within working landscapes is difficult where anthropogenic mortality is high and unregulated. This study focused on working ranches, where killing jaguars (Panthera onca) and their prey was prohibited, to gain insight into jaguar population potential across multi‐use landscapes. Faced with forest fragmentation, presence of domestic livestock, and dynamic land‐use practices, we expected jaguar populations in working landscapes to be predominantly male and transient, with low cub production, and inflated population densities in remnant forest patches, versus protected areas where we expected native forest habitat and stable jaguar territories. Using camera traps and spatial‐capture recapture analyses, we observed that male jaguars demonstrated larger‐scale movements and were more detectable than females (0.07 ± 0.01 SE vs. 0.02 ± 0.01 SE) in both working and protected landscapes. Female jaguars in ranches traveled farther than females in parks. Carnivore density increased with forest cover and wild prey activity, decreased with domestic prey activity, and was marginally higher in ranches (4.08 individuals/100 km2 ± 0.73 SE) than in parks (3.59 individuals/100 km2 ± 0.64 SE). Females outnumbered males in both landscapes (2.20–2.60 females/100 km2 vs. ~1.60 males/100 km2), although local male density reached up to 11.00 males/100 km2 in ranches (vs. 3.50 males/100 km2 in parks). While overall jaguar density was patchier in protected areas (x̿ = 0.69 parks, 0.54 ranches), inter‐annual patchiness was higher within ranches (Moran's I = 0.49–0.60 ranches, 0.69–0.70 parks), reflecting changes in cattle management. Despite major habitat alterations, working landscapes can support carnivore densities equivalent to (or exceeding that of) unmodified forest habitat, provided that wildlife‐tolerant ranching practices are maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Humans are primary drivers of declining abundances and extirpation of large carnivores worldwide. Management interventions to restore biodiversity patterns, however, include carnivore reintroductions, despite the many unresolved ecological consequences associated with such efforts. Using multistate capture–mark–recapture models, we explored age‐specific survival and cause‐specific mortality rates for 134 pumas (Puma concolor) monitored in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem during gray wolf (Canis lupus) recovery. We identified two top models explaining differences in puma survivorship, and our results suggested three management interventions (unsustainable puma hunting, reduction in a primary prey, and reintroduction of a dominant competitor) have unintentionally impacted puma survival. Specifically, puma survival across age classes was lower in the 6‐month hunting season than the 6‐month nonhunting season; human‐caused mortality rates for juveniles and adults, and predation rates on puma kittens, were higher in the hunting season. Predation on puma kittens, and starvation rates for all pumas, also increased as managers reduced elk (Cervus elaphus) abundance in the system, highlighting direct and indirect effects of competition between recovering wolves and pumas over prey. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding the synergistic effects of existing management strategies and the recovery of large, dominant carnivores to effectively conserve subordinate, hunted carnivores in human‐dominated landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Umbrella species are employed as conservation short-cuts for the design of reserves or reserve networks. However, empirical data on the effectiveness of umbrellas is equivocal, which has prevented more widespread application of this conservation strategy. We perform a novel, large-scale evaluation of umbrella species by assessing the potential umbrella value of a jaguar ( Panthera onca) conservation network (consisting of viable populations and corridors) that extends from Mexico to Argentina. Using species richness, habitat quality, and fragmentation indices of ~1500 co-occurring mammal species, we show that jaguar populations and corridors overlap a substantial amount and percentage of high-quality habitat for co-occurring mammals and that the jaguar network performs better than random networks in protecting high-quality, interior habitat. Significantly, the effectiveness of the jaguar network as an umbrella would not have been noticeable had we focused on species richness as our sole metric of umbrella utility. Substantial inter-order variability existed, indicating the need for complementary conservation strategies for certain groups of mammals. We offer several reasons for the positive result we document, including the large spatial scale of our analysis and our focus on multiple metrics of umbrella effectiveness. Taken together, our results demonstrate that a regional, single-species conservation strategy can serve as an effective umbrella for the larger community and should help conserve viable populations and connectivity for a suite of co-occurring mammals. Current and future range-wide planning exercises for other large predators may therefore have important umbrella benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans have been controlling carnivore numbers for centuries. Predator hunting, however, may indirectly influence predator‐prey dynamics unintentionally by influencing the age‐ and sex‐structure of predator populations that exhibit intraspecific (IS) variation in prey selection. We tested for IS in a small population of pumas in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, United States, and identified foraging strategies shared by multiple individuals. Further, we tested extrinsic and intrinsic variables that explained differences in foraging strategy. Our top model was composed of a single intrinsic characteristic, Age. In short, the older the animal, the larger the prey it specialized upon. Our provocative results suggest that the current controversial strategy of increasing puma culling to aid mule deer, as currently underway in Colorado, may in fact exacerbate problems for mule deer by changing the age‐structure of the puma population to predominantly younger animals that are more likely to hunt deer over elk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]