(Download) "Cannibalism Among Jaguars (Panthera Onca) (Notes) (Report)" by Southwestern Naturalist ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Cannibalism Among Jaguars (Panthera Onca) (Notes) (Report)
- Author : Southwestern Naturalist
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 66 KB
Description
Among most free-ranging carnivores, populations seem to be regulated by social interactions manifested through territoriality and aggression (Lindzey et al., 1994; Pierce et al., 2000; Adams, 2001). Instances of aggression and killing of conspecifics have been reported mostly as cases of interspecific killings (Palomares and Caro, 1999) or infanticide (Agrell et al., 1998; Soares et al., 2006), which significantly contributes to mortality of juveniles (Packer and Pusey, 1984; Balme and Hunter, 2004). Although less common than infanticide, intraspecific aggression resulting in death and consumption of an adult conspecific, i.e., cannibalism, has been reported among large terrestrial carnivores (Hunter and Skinner, 1995; Logan and Sweanor, 2001; Amstrup et al., 2006; Galentine and Swift, 2007). Among adult felids, factors that lead to cannibalism may include defense of cubs (Logan and Sweanor, 2001), defense of prey (Galentine and Swift, 2007), and apparent competition (Hunter and Skinner, 1995). Although much has been reported regarding agonistic behavior within felids, incidents of cannibalism among jaguars (Panthera onca) are rare and, so far, restricted to infanticide (Soares et al., 2006). Here, we document an observation of cannibalism of an adult female jaguar by two adult male jaguars. Our research is part of an ongoing project initiated in 2003 to examine spatial organization, use of food resources, and predation on livestock by jaguars in the southern part of the Pantanal region of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil (20[degrees]05'S, 56[degrees]36'W; Azevedo and Murray, 2007). The Pantanal is a floodplain covering ca. 140,000 km2 of land on the border of Bolivia and Paraguay, and is characterized by an annual regime of flooding and low land relief, with a landscape comprised of wetlands, seasonally inundated grasslands and woodlands, and non-flooding forests. The study site is a 150-[km.sup.2] cattle ranch and wildlife reserve in the southern region of the state.