ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Conserv. Sci.
Sec. Animal Conservation
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2025.1648851
Persecuted Mammals as Indicators of Moderate Human Disturbance in the Peruvian Amazon
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hoja Nueva, Puerto Maldonado, Peru
- 2University of Washington, Seattle, United States
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Human population growth and land conversion in tropical regions are driving habitat fragmentation, resource extraction, and hunting pressure, resulting in significant defaunation and biodiversity loss. From 2015 to 2022, we deployed camera traps across 293 sites in the unprotected Madre de Dios region of Peru, recording 14,849 mammal detections from 17 species. Using single-species occupancy models, we assessed the influence of eight environmental and anthropogenic covariates on mammal occupancy and detection. Proximity to human settlements and agricultural lands was associated with lower occupancy for persecuted species, including jaguars (Panthera onca) and lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), underscoring the impact of human activities. Interestingly, species like pacas (Cuniculus paca) and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) did not exhibit expected changes in occupancy, reflecting the complexity of species-specific adaptations to human disturbance. Our findings indicate that species occupancy is shaped by a combination of anthropogenic pressures and environmental factors, including proximity to rivers. These results emphasize the need for targeted conservation strategies that address species-specific responses to human impact, promoting a nuanced approach to wildlife management in biodiverse tropical ecosystems.
Keywords: Anthropogenic effects, biodiversity conservation, Camera traps, Defaunation, Occupancy modeling, Panthera onca, Prey dynamics, Tapirus terrestris
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zwicker, Singer and Gardner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Samantha Zwicker, sjzwicker@hojanueva.org
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