Population dynamic between vulnerable coastal jaguars (Panthera onca) and endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica.
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Animal Behavior, Biodiversity, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Population Biology
- Keywords
- Predator-prey dynamic, Nest depredation, Conservation, Jaguars, Predator avoidance, Sea turtles, Predation, Sea turtle nesting ecology, Tortuguero, Protected areas
- Copyright
- © 2018 Butera et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Population dynamic between vulnerable coastal jaguars (Panthera onca) and endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26915v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26915v1
Abstract
New-born sea turtles face a number of predators between the time the mothers lay eggs on the beach to when the hatchlings grow into larger juveniles. Nest depredation impacts reproductive success of nesting sea turtles, reducing the number of new turtles that make it to the sea. On Tortuguero beach nest predators include; dogs, coati, and raccoons. Nest depredation within Tortuguero National Park (TNP) has decreased dramatically since 1979. This decrease in nest depredation is linked to the increased jaguar population within TNP as the aforementioned species are considered the jaguars natural prey. Although jaguars prey on nesting turtles, they also control the populations of nest predators. Even more, jaguars have been demonstrated to change their behaviour to suit their preference in prey species therefore the nest predator distribution in TNP was examined to investigate whether changes in jaguar prey preference had an effect. Nest predation and the number of adult turtles lost to jaguar depredation were examined to determine the significance of the threat jaguars pose to the sea turtle population. This study investigates the predator prey relationship between jaguars, nest predators, and nesting female sea turtles; aiming to assessing the impact that jaguars have on the turtle's population.
Author Comment
This is an abstract which has been accepted for the WCMB