Jaguar (Panthera onca) Habitat Suitability Assessment in the Wildlife Corridor Linking the Talamanca Mountains to the Coastal Forests of the Osa Peninsula

abstract: Anthropogenic land-use change, and its resulting habitat fragmentation, have restricted and isolated jaguar (Panthera onca) populations across their historic range of South, Central, and North America. As a result, jaguar are now globally listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List of threatened species (Quigley et al., 2017). Southwestern Costa Rica maintains two distinct jaguar populations: a small relictual “sink” population in Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula and a larger but marginalized “source” population in the La Amistad International Park in the Talamanca mountains to the Northeast. The small and highly restricted population located between Corcovado (425 km²) and Piedras Blancas (140 km²) National Parks has been isolated for more than 50 years, while La Amistad International Park (2306 km²) in the north contains a significantly larger population, but in suboptimal montane habitat. A mosaic of pastures, coffee plantations, African oil palm groves, pineapple plantations, and human communities separate these two populations. My paper offers an analysis of the habitat suitability between the montane forest of the Talamanca Mountains and the coastal forest of the Osa Peninsula for jaguars within a proposed conservation corridor. While forest was determined to be the most optimal habitat type for jaguar, mangroves and small scale coffee were also found to be suitable in the context of a corridor. Palm was identified as having marginal suitability, while pasture and pineapple appeared poorly suited for jaguar, particularly due to the lack of prey species and vegetation cover. Urban areas were found to be entirely unsuitable. While human activities have highly fragmented the study area, my analysis suggests that human-dominated landscapes, such as agriculture, can still maintain connectivity, especially when paired with actions to improve conservation, education, and sustainable practices. My research will further support the establishment of a proposed wildlife corridor, which could greatly improve connectivity for wildlife across the region and facilitate movement of jaguar and prey species between the isolated Talamancan and Osa populations