Factors affecting Jaguar and Puma predation on livestock in Costa Rica

Abstract

Throughout their range, wild felids in the Americas prey on livestock and this sometimes leads to retaliatory killing. Recently, conservation and research programs focused on such conflicts have recommended mitigation and prevention measures to producers, but these programs sometimes lack guidelines to direct implementation. We developed an index of risk of felid predation on cattle based on data from 52 ranches in Northwest Costa Rica. We evaluated the following as potential indicators of risk: climate, proximity to protected areas, distance to riparian forest, and wildlife occurrence as landscape factors, and cattle management efforts, and average livestock weight as anthropogenic factors. As a result, the index was defined as a hierarchical classification of these variables that provides a planning tool to identify and address the vulnerability of livestock at cattle ranches to felid predation events.