Habitat Suitability Analysis for the Jaguar in the Amazon Biome of Brazil

Abstract

Jaguars are a keystone species of the Amazon Rainforest and they are suffering from habitat loss at an increasing rate. Brazil remains an integral portion of the jaguar’s habitat, specifically the Amazon Rainforest. This study performs suitability analysis on habitat within the Amazon biome to highlight suitable locations for potential future conservation units. Five variables were used for the analysis, high tree cover, wetlands, shrubs, human activity and terrain ruggedness. A weighted linear combination method was used to compare each variable and produce a map of suitable locations ranked from high suitable (1) to not suitable (4). A majority of the study area was considered high suitable at 80.02%,19.92% was medium suitable, .06% was low suitable and 0% was not suitable. The habitat suitability model was also compared to protected areas within the Amazon biome. When compared to protected areas within the biome, 73.61% of areas fell under high suitable, 26.36% were medium suitable and .04% were low suitable. The areas that fell outside of protected land were 86.52 % high suitable, 13.39% medium suitable and .09% low suitable. These results can lend conservationists, policy makers or other interested parties the groundwork on where to increase protection efforts and ensure the jaguar doesn’t suffer more habitat loss and fragmentation.