Camera trapping associated with capture–recapture models is commonly used to estimate wild felid population density, relying on three main frameworks: spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR) and two non-spatial approaches (CR-MMDM and CR-hMMDM). Methodological differences, inappropriate sampling designs, and/or insufficient data explain some estimate variability, but the biological factors underpinning this remain undetermined. Prey availability, habitat suitability, and body size may all interact and influence carnivoran population size and density. We aimed to (1) survey ocelot population density data and summarise information on study designs, methodological approaches, and results, (2) evaluate the relationships between them, (3) disentangle methodological and ecological effects on population density estimates, and (4) provide guidance to improve study design and reporting. Our systematic review discovered 51 studies reporting 228 ocelot population density estimates from 65 sites across 13 countries. We collated ocelot body mass data (BM) and used forest canopy height (GFCH) as a surrogate for habitat suitability, as well as gross primary productivity seasonality (GPP variation) as a proxy for prey availability. Using a meta-analytical framework, we created models to (1) determine mean ocelot population density in the Neotropics and to assess the effects of (2) methodological and (3) ecological variables on population density estimates. Mean population density was 20.3/100 km 2 , with significant differences among methods. SECR and CR-MMDM yielded comparable estimates (16.6/100 km 2 and 18.9/100 km 2 , respectively), while CR-hMMDM produced higher estimates (27.3/100 km 2 ). We found significant positive and negative effects of GFCH and BM, respectively, and a marginally significant negative effect of GPP variation on estimates. Ocelots thrive in forests with higher canopies, but their population density is limited by local habitat seasonality. Morphological differences further influence variation, with small-bodied populations attaining higher population densities under similar ecological conditions. Based on our findings, we provide guidelines to enhance the accuracy and standardization of study designs, methodological approaches, and general reporting. Improving these aspects will strengthen the comparability and reliability of ocelot population density estimates.

Coats-of-arms representing municipal counties express local patterns of rural economics, natural resource and land use, features of the natural capital, and the cultural heritage of either aborigines or colonists. We reconstruct the subnational economic and political timeline of the world's largest tropical country using municipal coats-of-arms to reinterpret Brazil's historical ecology. We assessed all natural resource, biophysical, agricultural, and ethnocultural elements of 5,197 coats-of-arms (93.3%) distributed throughout Brazil. We extracted socioenvironmental co-variables for any municipality to understand and predict the relationships between social inequality, environmental degradation, and the historical ecology symbology. We analyzed data via ecological networks and structural equation models. Our results show that the portfolio of political-administrative symbology in coats-of-arms is an underutilized tool to understand the history of colonization frontiers. Although Brazil is arguably Earth's most species-rich country, generations of political leaders have historically failed to celebrate this biodiversity, instead prioritizing a symbology depicted by icons of frontier conquest and key natural resources. Brazilian historical ecology reflects the relentless depletion of the natural resource capital while ignoring profound social inequalities. Degradation of natural ecosystems is widespread in Brazilian economy, reflecting a legacy of boom-and-bust rural development that so far has failed to deliver sustainable socioeconomic prosperity.

This article advances a novel analytical framework for investigating the influence of political-economic processes in human-wildlife interactions (HWI) to support efforts to transform wildlife conservation governance. To date, the majority of research and advocacy addressing HWI focuses on micro-level processes, while even the small body of existing literature exploring social dimensions of such interactions has largely neglected attention to political-economic forces. This is consonant with efforts to transform conservation policy and practice more broadly, which tend to emphasize "circular" change within current political-economic structures rather than "axial" transformation aiming to transcend these structures themselves. Our analysis thus advances understanding of potential for axial transformation in HWI via confrontation with, and "unmaking" of, constraining political-economic structures. It does so through cross-site analysis of conservation policy and practice in relation to three apex predator species (lions, jaguars and wolves) in varied geographic and socio-political contexts, grounded in qualitative ethnographic study within the different sites by members of an international research team. We explore how the relative power of different political-economic interests within each case influences how the animals are perceived and valued, and how this in turn influences conservation interventions and their impact on HWI within these spaces. We term this analysis of the "production-protection nexus" (the interrelation between process of resource extraction and conservation, respectively) in rural landscapes. We emphasize importance of attention to this formative nexus both within and across specific locales in growing global efforts to transform situations of human-wildlife conflict into less contentious coexistence.

The "Empty Forest " paradigm published three decades ago inspired studies on biodiversity erosion. Evidence to date continues pessimistic regarding the fate of wildlife. This calls for a more proactive approach by several societal actors to realign systems of resource exploitation with the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

How organisms search for and obtain food is a determinant of their survival. It has been hypothesized that organisms facing food limitations might expand their dietary niche compared with optimal foraging conditions. Nonetheless, some organisms may reduce their dietary niche due to limiting resources. Here, we show the resource use plasticity of capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the largest living rodent, in natural and anthropized environments of Brazil using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in hair. We assessed the resource use, size and overlap of isotopic niches, and the influence of body mass, age class, sex, and landscape composition on isotopic values among 13 capybara populations (210 individuals). We observed a wide variation in isotopic values of capybaras among and within populations in different environments. Surprisingly, diets varied from strictly C-4-based to strictly C-3-based, with most individuals feeding on C-4 plants (65%). A substantial portion of individuals presented mixed diets (C-3 and C-4 plants), totaling 31% of the individuals, and few fed exclusively on C-3 plants (4%). Isotopic niche size also varied among populations in both environments, with low overlap considering their core dietary niche. Capybara populations in natural environments had substantial incorporation of C-3 resources, showing individuals with strictly C-3 diets, and possibly relying on a high diversity of food items, while some populations in anthropized ones fed exclusively on C-4 resources. Neither body mass, age class, sex, nor landscape composition significantly influenced isotopic values. Here, we provide evidence of the dietary plasticity of capybaras in different environments, transitioning from the consumption of C-4 to C-3 plants when needed, that is, from preferred to non-preferred food items. Together with the species' behavioral plasticity, our results help explain its resilience in surviving, and even thriving, in both natural and human-modified environments.

Biodiversity inventories provide critical information on the ecology of natural ecosystems and inform conservation planning at local to regional scales. Based on a systematic review, we compiled data on over 1000 mammal inventories conducted throughout the Neotropics - from Mexico to Argentina - to document the status of assemblage-wide field mammalogy in the world's most biodiverse Tropical realm. We analysed data using descriptive statistics and a confusion matrix to understand the prevalence of species' pseudo-absences, map overall patterns of survey density, and quantify any geographic sampling bias. Based on the 1028 site-specific inventories published between 1983 and 2020, mean species richness of medium- to large-bodied mammals was 11.9 (+/- 8.8 standard deviation). Local inventories were distributed across elevational gradients, and overall sampling effort and survey techniques employed were extremely variable. The best-sampled regions were the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Mesoamerica, but we identified nine large assemblage-wide Wallacean shortfalls and a pseudo-absence rate of 11% (+/- 4% standard deviation); geographic sampling bias was largely related to human population density, regardless of the assemblages' intactness presumably found in the undersampled wilderness regions of the Neotropics. We document the 40-year legacy of mammal field surveys throughout the Neotropics, where several glaring knowledge shortfalls still persist. This calls for an audacious research agenda for future Neotropical mammal studies, which should target sampling in more remote areas, standardise sampling methodology, and provide high-resolution data that can be used to fill current knowledge shortfalls. To do so, Latin American countries and the wider international community will need to commit greater personnel and financial resources to understanding biodiversity patterns and processes related to the Tropical vertebrate fauna.

Understanding local-scale patterns of vertebrate species persistence or extirpation in the Anthropocene is a central challenge in conservation ecology. Based on real-world occurrences of 83 mammal ecospecies (i.e. strict ecological analogues often represented by parapatric congeners) across 1029 surveyed sites within the entire Neotropical realm, we set out to identify and disentangle the role of life-history traits under a phylogenetically controlled design in explaining local extinctions given the two leading threats to these species, namely habitat loss (the inverse of remaining habitat area [i.e. 100 - habitat area]) and hunting represented by a metric that ranged from -1.0 (non-hunted sites) to +1.0 (heavily hunted sites). We also examine the dominant role of body size in either reducing or aggravating local extinctions. We analyzed this large dataset using descriptive statistics, Generalized Linear Mixed Models, Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares, and Phylogenetic Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Habitat loss was the leading driver of local extinctions affecting 75 % of all mammal species, whereas hunting exerted a coup de grace effect on 70 % of the species whose local fates were determined by the synergistic interaction between habitat loss and hunting. Our results show that Neotropical sites across landscapes retaining <= 30 % of their original habitat and subjected to heavy levels of hunting pressure (>= 0.40) contained only ~35 % of the historical mammal fauna. Even after the millennial timescale that shaped modern biotas, threats to the Neotropical megafauna have never been as severe as in the last five decades. Given the narrowing time window for mitigation action, it becomes imperative to implement conservation plans to effectively prevent or inhibit these leading threats to this vertebrate fauna.

Socioeconomic indicators are essential to help design and monitor the impact of public policies on society. Such indicators are usually obtained through census data collected at 10-year intervals, which are not only temporally coarse but expensive. Over recent years other ways of collecting data and producing these indicators have been explored, in particular using the new surveillance capabilities that remote observations can provide. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the assessment of socioeconomic indicators using street-view imagery, through a case study conducted in a region of Brazil, the Vale do Ribeira, one of the poorest semi-rural regions in Brazil. In this study we used socioeconomic indicators collected by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and used Google Street View (GSV) images as our source of remote observations. A pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) was used to predict socio-economic indicators from GSV. To evaluate the performance of the classifier, we performed five-fold cross-validation between the predicted indicator and its true value. The best performance was obtained for the highest income class, with 80% of correct prediction. We conclude that the method has the potential to predict socioeconomic indicators across a large area with social challenges such as Vale do Ribeira, and that the network model is general enough to be used even when the imagery dataset is from semi-rural areas. This demonstrates the applicability of GSV datasets for similar settings and perhaps ensuring their replicability, which is a scientific requirement that requires further experimentation/evaluation.

Abstract Mammals are charismatic organisms that play a fundamental role in ecological functions and ecosystem services, such as pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, and pest control. The state of São Paulo represents only 3% of the Brazilian territory but holds 33% of its mammalian diversity. Most of its territory is dominated by agriculture, pastures, and urban areas which directly affect the diversity and persistence of mammals in the landscape. In addition, São Paulo has the largest port in Latin America and the largest offshore oil reservoir in Brazil, with a 600 km stretch of coastline with several marine mammal species. These human-made infrastructures affect the diversity, distribution, ecology, and the future of mammals in the state. Here, we answer five main questions: 1) What is the diversity of wild mammals in São Paulo state? 2) Where are they? 3) What is their positive and negative impact on human well-being? 4) How do mammals thrive in human-modified landscapes? 5) What is the future of mammals in the state? The state of São Paulo holds 255 species of native mammals, with four endemic species, two of them globally endangered. At least six species (two marsupials, Giant otter, Pampas deer, Brazilian dwarf brocket deer, and Giant armadillo) were extirpated from the state due to hunting and habitat loss. The intense human land use in the state forced many mammalian species to change their diet to cope with the intense fragmentation and agriculture. Large-scale monoculture has facilitated the invasion of exotic species such as wild boars (javali) and the European hare. Several “savanna-dwelling” species are expanding their ranges (Maned wolf, Brocket deer) over deforested areas and probably reflect changes towards a drier climate. Because the state has the largest road system, about 40,000 mammals from 33 species are killed per year in collisions causing an economic loss of 12 million dollars/year. The diversity of mammals is concentrated in the largest forest remnants of Serra do Mar and in the interior of the State, mainly in the regions of Ribeirão Preto and Jundiaí. Sampling gaps are concentrated throughout the interior of the state, particularly in the northwest region. Wild mammals play a fundamental role in many ecosystem services, but they can also be a concern in bringing new emergent diseases to humans. Although the taxonomy of mammals seems to be well known, we show that new species are continuously being discovered in the state. Therefore, continuous surveys using traditional and new technologies (eDNA, iDNA, drones), long-term population monitoring, investigation of the interface of human-wildlife conflict, and understanding of the unique ecosystem role played by mammals are future avenues for promoting sustainable green landscapes allied to human well-being in the state. The planting of forest or savanna corridors, particularly along with major river systems, in the plateau, controlling illegal hunting in the coastal areas, managing fire regimes in the Cerrado, and mitigating roadkill must be prioritized to protect this outstanding mammal diversity.

The capybara, Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, is the largest extant rodent of the world. To better understand the correlation between size and body mass, and biochemical parameters of capybaras from areas with different degrees of anthropization (i.e., different food supplies), we sampled free-ranging capybaras from areas of natural landscapes (NLs) and human-modified landscapes (HMLs) in Brazil. Analyses of biometrical and biochemical parameters of capybaras showed that animals from HMLs were heavier (higher body mass) than those from NL, a condition possibly related to fat deposit rather than body length, as indicated by Body Condition Index (BCI) analyses. Biochemical parameters indicated higher serum levels of albumin, creatine kinase, cholesterol, fructosamine and total protein among capybaras from HMLs than from NLs; however, when all adult capybaras were analyzed together only cholesterol and triglycerides were positively correlated with body mass. We propose that the biochemical profile differences between HMLs and NLs are related to the obesity condition of capybaras among HMLs. Considering that heavier animals might live longer and reproduce more often, our results could have important implications in the population dynamics of capybaras among HMLs, where this rodent species is frequently represented by overgrowth populations that generate several levels of conflicts with human beings.

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Conservation of carnivores involves finding solutions to minimize habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict. Understanding the nature of land-use economics can allow us to mitigate both threats. In the Pantanal, the two main economic activities are cattle ranching and ecotourism, each of which directly and indirectly affect the persistence of jaguars ( Panthera onca ). To understand how the geography of these economic activities is related to jaguar populations, we developed a jaguar distribution model (JDM), livestock density model, and ecotourism lodge density model for the Pantanal. Due to the recent wildfires within the Pantanal, we also assess the impact of burnt areas that are suitable for jaguars, cattle ranching, and tourism. Our JDM indicate that 64% of the Pantanal holds suitable habitat for jaguars. However, jaguar habitat suitability was positively correlated with ecotourism, but negatively correlated with areas most suitable for intensive cattle-ranching. This demonstrates a biome-wide scenario compatible with jaguar conservation. Of particular concern, recent wildfires overlap most suitable areas for jaguars. If wildfires become increasingly frequent, this would represent a serious threat to jaguars and many other wildlife populations. We emphasize the global importance of the Pantanal wetland ecoregion as a key stronghold for long-term jaguar conservation.

Multiple proposals for transforming biodiversity conservation have been put forward, yet critical exploration of how transformative change is conceptualised in this context is lacking. Drawing on transformations to sustainability scholarship, we review recent proposals for transformative change in biodiversity conservation, considering the suggested goals and means of transformation. We outline the crucial role for critical social scientific inquiry in transformative change by highlighting two core contributions. First, critical social science is an analytical device that politicises and pluralises debates and second, it can help facililitate the identification of transformative alternatives. We then show how such a critical social science approach is operationalised within the CONVIVA (Towards Convivial Conservation: Governing Human-Wildlife Interactions in the Anthropocene) project to pursue transformative change in biodiversity conservation.

New World bats are heavily affected by the biophysical setting shaped by elevation and latitude. This study seeks to understand the patterns of bat species diversity across elevational, latitudinal and vegetation height gradients throughout the Neotropics. Systematically gathered putative and empirical data on bat species distribution across the entire Neotropics were examined using descriptive statistics, spatial interpolation of bat taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity, generalized linear models, generalized linear mixed models and phylogenetic generalized least squares. We uncoupled the effects of elevation, latitude and vegetation height to predict Neotropical bat diversity, showing that dietary level, home range and habitat breadth were the most important ecological traits determining coarse-scale bat distributions. Latitude was largely responsible for sorting the regional species pool, whereas elevation appears to apply an additional local filter to this regional pool wherever tropical mountains are present, thereby shaping the structure of montane assemblages. Bats provide multiple ecosystem services and our results can help pinpoint priority areas for bat research and conservation across all Neotropics, elucidate the thresholds of species distributions, and highlight bat diversity hotspots at multiple scales.

Different types of matrices can perform different disturbance regimes over remnant forests, which can ultimately affect plant diversity. To address these issues, we studied 60 plots in forest remnants embedded within sugarcane plantations and pasturelands in the Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil. Our objectives were to evaluate general patterns of plant diversity and to assess the influence of landscape structure and dynamics on plant richness and diversity. We recorded 297 species in two strata. (DBH superior stratum ≥ 4.8 cm > inferior stratum). Overall, diversity of the inferior stratum was higher in pastureland forest remnants than in sugarcane matrices. In the superior stratum, time since abandonment represented a greater influence. Considering the partition of diversity, more than 40% of total diversity was due to the alpha component alone in all cases, but it was significantly lower than expected. Beta components among forest remnants, landscapes and matrices were higher than expected for both strata, whether together or separately. Habitat heterogeneity showed a higher contribution to the total floristic diversity, but among remnants this contribution was even more significant. Forest remnants in pasturelands had a more dynamic land use history and parameters of landscape dynamics were more related to plant diversity. For remnants in the sugarcane matrices, species richness and composition were explained by landscape structure. Our results highlight that there is an important plant community diffused in the forest remnants of human-modified landscapes. Therefore, conserving the majority of remnants and restoring degraded ones must be a key conservation strategy.

We studied communities of small mammals and their ticks in endemic (E) and non-endemic (NE) areas for Brazilian spotted fever (BSF), aiming to infer if diversity parameters of parasites and hosts could be related to occurrence and prevalence of rickettsial infection, especially Rickettsia rickettsii. We compared E and NE areas in human-modified landscapes (HMLs) and natural areas (BIO) with no report of BSF cases. Composition and equitability were important components of diversity explaining differences among areas. The marsupial Didelphis albiventris was dominant in HMLs, but not in natural areas, and this opossum was the main host for the tick Amblyomma sculptum, principal vector of R. rickettsii, especially in E areas. Communities of ticks were dominated by A. sculptum, followed by Amblyomma dubitatum in E areas. In NE areas, this dominance was inverted, with more A. dubitatum than A. sculptum infesting small mammals, but the numbers of ticks were much lower than in E areas. Composition and abundance of ticks in natural areas were very dissimilar from HMLs, with the lowest tick burdens. Didelphis albiventris in E areas presented higher seroprevalence and endpoint titres against R. rickettsii than in other areas. At least three Rickettsia species, non-pathogenic to humans, were detected in natural areas (Rickettsia bellii, Rickettsia amblyommatis and 'Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae'), and only one non-pathogenic species in HMLs (R. bellii). Our results suggest that higher diversity of ticks, hosts and rickettsiae could be relevant factors in buffering the effect in BSF occurrence. Particularly for D. albiventris, its importance has to be quantified in further studies considering the epidemiological scenario of BSF.

Coexistence, as a concept and as a management goal and practice, has attracted increasing attention from researchers, managers and decision-makers dedicated to understanding and improving human-wildlife interactions. Although it still lacks a universally agreed definition, coexistence has increasingly been associated with a broad spectrum of human-wildlife interactions, including positive interactions, transcending a conservation focus on endangered wildlife, and involving explicitly considerations of power, equity and justice. In a growingly complex and interconnected human-dominated world, the key to turning human-wildlife interactions into large-scale coexistence is thorough planning. We present an approach for evidence-based, structured, and participatory decision-making in planning for human-wildlife coexistence. More specifically, we propose (i) a conceptual framework for describing the situation and setting the goals, (ii) a process for examining the causes of the situation and creating a theory of change, and (iii) a model for transdisciplinary research and collaboration integrating researchers, decision-makers and residents along with the interests of wildlife. To illustrate the approach, we report on the workshop considering the Jaguars of Iguaçu, a conservation project whose strategy includes the improvement of the relationship between ranchers and jaguars outside Iguaçu National Park, Brazil.

Mammalian spatial and temporal activity patterns can vary depending on foraging behavior or the perception of predation or competition risk among species. These behaviors may in turn be altered by human influences such as defaunation. Herein, we evaluate whether frugivores avoid areas with high visitation rates by potential predators or competitors, and whether this avoidance changes in areas with different degrees of defaunation. We installed 189 cameras under fruit trees in six areas of the Atlantic Forest, Brazil, that differ in the abundance of top predators and large frugivores. Small predators and small frugivores were more frequent at night while large frugivores were more frequent during the day, but small frugivores visited and spent less time at fruiting trees on brighter nights, unlike large predators and large frugivores. Small frugivores also were less frequent in areas with high visitation by large frugivores and more frequent in highly defaunated areas. Our results suggest that the dynamics among mammalian functional groups varied according to die! patterns, potential competitors, and defaunation. We highlight the importance of understanding how species interactions are changing in areas exposed to strong human impacts to mitigate the indirect effects of defaunation.

Human activities are changing landscape structure and function globally, affecting wildlife space use, and ultimately increasing human-wildlife conflicts and zoonotic disease spread. Capybara ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris ) is a conflict species that has been implicated in the spread and amplification of the most lethal tick-borne disease in the world, the Brazilian spotted fever (BSF). Even though essential to understand the link between capybaras, ticks and the BSF, many knowledge gaps still exist regarding the effects of human disturbance in capybara space use. Here, we analyzed diurnal and nocturnal habitat selection strategies of capybaras across natural and human-modified landscapes using resource selection functions (RSF). Selection for forested habitats was high across human- modified landscapes, mainly during day- periods. Across natural landscapes, capybaras avoided forests during both day- and night periods. Water was consistently selected across both landscapes, during day- and nighttime. This variable was also the most important in predicting capybara habitat selection across natural landscapes. Capybaras showed slightly higher preferences for areas near grasses/shrubs across natural landscapes, and this variable was the most important in predicting capybara habitat selection across human-modified landscapes. Our results demonstrate human-driven variation in habitat selection strategies by capybaras. This behavioral adjustment across human-modified landscapes may be related to BSF epidemiology.

Mammals embody the apex of ecosystems processes, and their majestic diversity is overwhelmingly threatened in the Neotropical realm. Mammal population declines erode not only several levels of biological diversity, but may also impoverish critical ecosystem services (ES). Based on 2,427 putative baseline mammal assemblages derived from IUCN ranges polygons, we sought to understand, for the first time, the effects of mammal defaunation on natural ecosystem services throughout the entire Neotropical realm. At the assemblage-level, we simulated both stochastic and deterministic regimes of mammal defaunation, examining both diversity indices and classic metrics of ecological networks (e.g. modularity and nestedness). Our results show that ES losses are induced by declines in both taxonomic and functional diversity. Given any defaunation regime, Neotropical provinces undergo levels of ES erosion typically reaching less than a third of all potential network links. Geographic patterns of lost ecosystem services—resulting from simulated and real-world mammal extinctions—indicate that this will detrimentally affect human livelihoods across all major Neotropical provinces. We conclude that the ongoing defaunation process will promote irreversible failures of several mammal-mediated ecosystem processes at varying timescales.