Carnivores in the Southwest of the Province of Buenos Aires: Ecology and Conflicts with Farmers

ARTICLES RIA / Vol. 43 / N.º 2

Carnivores in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires: ecology and conflicts with farmers

CARUSO, N.1,2; LUENGOS VIDAL, E.M.1,3; LUCHERINI, M.1,2; GUERISOLI, M.1,2; MARTINEZ, S.1; CASANAVE, E.B.1,3

ABSTRACT The key role that wild carnivores play in ecosystems is threatened by human persecution and habitat alteration worldwide. The SW region of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a region strongly modified by the spread of agriculture and where, in the last years, there has been an increase in carnivore predation on livestock. The simultaneous study of the ecology of carnivores and of their conflicts with ranching activities is essential to find solution that can minimize the impact of these species on the regional economy while main- taining their ecological role. We deployed camera traps in the Buenos Aires counties of Villarino and Patagones to study the factors affecting the distribution of the four most common species (puma, Puma concolor; Geoffroy’s cat, Leopardus geoffroyi; Pampas fox, Pseudalopex gymnocercus; Molina’s hog-nosed skunk, Conepatus chinga). Semi-structured interviews to local ranchers and participative workshops were carried out to analyze human-carnivore conflicts. From 2008 to 2015, we surveyed 49 camera trap sites and characterized the study area through 12 variables related to anthropogenic alterations and to landscape composition and fragmentation. We also com- pleted 193 interviews and four workshops. For the interviews we used a questionnaire focused on collecting information on socio-economic aspects of ranchers and ranch management, while in the workshops we sear- ched for a common agreement on the relevance of the potential factors affecting human-carnivore conflicts. The application of Generalized Linear Models to camera trapping data indicated that the use of habitat by carnivores in the region is affected by the alterations of natural habitats. The Pampas fox and skunk were the species with greater adaptability, whereas the puma and Geoffroy’s cat appeared to be more sensitive to ecosystem modifications. Pumas avoided intensively modified sites and preferred natural patches. Losses on livestock by pumas and Pampas foxes during the previous year were reported by 47% and 55% of respondents, respectively, and 93% of ranchers considered carnivores as detrimental to regional production. Work- shop participants identified a possible increase in conflicts associated to the decrease in human presence in ranchlands. Although illegal hunting of carnivores appears to be the most common response to conflicts, ranchers showed interest and motivation to explore mitigation measures. The comprehension of the socio-economic dynamics occurring in the SW of Buenos Aires is extremely urgent for conflict mitigation. Nevertheless, long term solutions will require the engagement of local communities and different government institutions. Keywords: predation, patagones, villarino, livestock, puma, pampas fox.

1GECM (Grupo de Ecología Comportamental de Mamíferos), Cátedra. Fisiología Animal, Depto. Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, Uni- versidad Nacional del Sur, San Juan 670, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Correo electrónico: [email protected] 2CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Buenos Aires, Argentina. 3INBIOSUR-UNS-CONICET (Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur), Bahía Blanca, Argentina.

Received August 4 2016 // Accepted March 7 2017 // Published online July 5 2017

Carnivores in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires: ecology and conflicts with farmers August 2017, Argentina 5

INTRODUCTION Many times the losses due to predation call more attention to the producer than inadequate sanitary, reproductive The order Carnivora includes 286 species (Wilson and or nutritional management and lead to an overestimation of Reeder, 2005), 28 of which are found in Argentina (Ojeda the importance of the conflict (Polisar et al., 2003). et al., 2012). They are mostly predators located at the top of the trophic pyramid (Redford and Eisenberg, 1992) and The southwest region accounts for 25% of the territory which feed mainly on vertebrates (Emmons, 1987). of the province of Buenos Aires and is characterized as a mixed production area, in which livestock has an important These species have a fundamental role in the ecosystems role. Fundamentally, the action of man in this region has where they live due to the top-down control they can exert been focused on the clearing and transformation of natural over the populations they prey (Ritchie and Johnson, 2009). forests (known as “montes”) into pastures and crops (Isla Most carnivores need large territories to survive and, the- et al., 2003). refore, extensive areas are necessary to guarantee the via- Beyond its limited natural productivity, associated to poor bility of their populations (Noss et al., 1996; Ray et al., 2005). and poorly developed soils and scarce rainfall, there is an The loss and fragmentation of habitats, and the perse- unsustainable management of livestock, which threatens the cution by men are three of the main threats to carnivores functionality of ecological processes, species diversity and (Loyola et al., 2008; Crooks et al., 2011). The aforemen- economic productivity (Distel, 2016 ). All these factors have tioned characteristics make these species very vulnerable led to a strong degradation of soils (Bouza et al., 2016). to disturbances of environments and fragmentation (Lyra- This work aims at summarizing the main results obtained Jorge et al., 2010; Crooks et al., 2011). In Argentina, the to date by the Mammalian Behavioral Ecology Group [Grupo modification of natural habitats is a common phenomenon, de Ecología Comportamental de Mamíferos] of the Univer- especially in the central region where most of the popu- sidad Nacional del Sur, in two fundamental aspects: (1) the lation is concentrated. This is due to the advance of the use of habitat by the four most abundant species of carnivo- agricultural-livestock frontier (Brown et al., 2006). res in this region (the skunk, Conepatus chinga; Geoffroy’s Real et al. (2003) concluded that human activities are the cat, Leopardus geoffroyi; the Pampas fox, Pseudalopex most influencing factor affecting the distribution of carnivo- gymnocercus; and the cougar, Puma concolor) describing res in Argentina. In association with these transformations, the factors that most influence this process; and (2) the cha- there is a reduction in the abundance of native prey and racterization of the level of the conflict between producers the introduction of domestic livestock that, in turn, generate and carnivorous, paying particular attention to the perception conflicts between carnivores and humans (Treves and Ka- and attitudes of producers against predators. ranth, 2003).

Depredation by wild animals, such as carnivores, has MATERIALS AND METHODS always been an important problem for livestock, especially in South America (Baker et al., 2008; Zarco-González Study area et al., 2012). Although there are other causes of conflict For this study we formulated the following predictions in (transmission of diseases, direct attacks on humans), the regards to the habitat use pattern: greatest problems with predators is that they feed of livestock, which can cause significant economic losses to rural 1. Cougars would avoid the most fragmented, with the producers (Woodroffe, 2000; Baker et al., 2008). greatest human presence areas, and would use the most preserved areas more. The most common response to this type of problem is the elimination of predators (Linnell et al., 1996; Inskip and 2. Given the great hunting pressure exerted over the Zimmermann, 2009). However, this type of solution usua- Pampas fox, a certain level of avoidance is expected lly fails to solve the problem in the long term, perpetuating in those areas with the greatest human presence. At an ecological imbalance that can exacerbate the conflict the same time, an association to relatively open envi- (Snow, 2008) and bring some species to the limits of ex- ronments is expected, in agreement with the results of tinction (Goodrich y Buskirk, 1995; Wallach et al., 2009). previous studies. Many factors can influence the decision of a predator to 3. Since Geoffroy’s cat is one of the least generalist spe- hunt livestock, including learned behavior, lack of native cies of the group, a significant response of Geoffroy’s prey, lack of adequate management practices, tolerance to cat to environmental gradients is expected. Also, a humans and often habitat characteristics (Rosas-Rosas et strong association of this species to areas with the hig- al., 2008) and all of them must be evaluated when planning hest proportion of monte is expected. effective management actions. In addition, when analyzing 4. A greater association of the Molina’s hog-nosed skunk to conflicts with fauna, social, ethical, and cultural aspects sites near the crops is expected, as they have been pro- must be considered, as they frequently affect social actors posed as favorable environments for this species. and may increase the perception of the magnitude of conflicts with a given species (Dickman, 2010; Marchini y Mac- Based on these assumptions, this study was conducted donald, 2012). in private fields located in the districts of Villarino and Pa-

CARUSO, N.1,2; LUENGOS VIDAL, E.M.1,3; LUCHERINI, M.1,2; GUERISOLI, M.1,2; MARTINEZ, S.1; CASANAVE, E.B.1,3 ARTICLES RIA / Vol. 43 / N.º 2

tagones, which are in the southwest region of the province of Agricultural Technology (INTA). In order to characterize of Buenos Aires, with an area of 27,300 km2 (Figure 1). the habitat in the sampling sites, buffers were built around Cameras were placed in 50 properties and 150 properties each of them. were surveyed. Since the perception of the carnivores on the environment From the phytogeographical perspective, both districts is related to the size of their areas of action (De Angelo et are located in the southernmost part of the Espinal (Morello al., 2011; Kanagaraj et al., 2011) three radios were used et al., 2012), an ecoregion of the Chaco-Pampeana plain based on the maximum sizes of areas of action reported that spans in the arc surrounding the Pampeana ecoregion for each studied species: 1.5 km for the skunk, 3 km for the to the north, west and south, and constitutes an ecotone Pampas fox and for Geoffroy’s cat, and 6 km for the cougar. between the ecoregions of Monte, Chaco Seco and Pam- The density of fields was calculated using a cadastral map peana (Brown et al., 2006; Morello et al., 2012). The Espinal based on the number of fields intersected by the buffer. is characterized by the presence of low xerophilous montes Additionally, all habitat categories (excluding “crops”) were dominated by species of the genus Prosopis, which vary merged into the same category (“natural”) and indices indi- in their density level, but also in savannas and grasslands. cative of their representativeness and fragmentation within the environment included in the buffer were calculated, At present, the original vegetation forests (montes) form using the Fragstat 4.1® program. heterogeneous and intricate mosaics in a matrix where agricultural lands predominate (Fernández and Busso, A principal component analysis was applied on the afo- 1999; Morello et al., 2012). This is due to its ecotonic cha- rementioned variables, after normalization (Zar, 1999), with racteristic, the heterogeneity of its landscape, of its types of the aim of reducing its multicollinearity and, in turn, obtai- soils and to the economic activity that alters the landscape. ning linear combinations that would characterize the dominant environmental gradients in the region (Legendre and In this study area the community is mostly constituted Legrendre , 1998). by four species of felines (the cougar, Puma concolor; the Geoffroy’s cat, Leopardus geoffroyi; the Pampas cat, These gradients (that is, the extracted components) were Leopardus colocolo; and the jaguarundi, Puma yagoua- used as predictor variables to adjust Generalized Linear roundi), a medium-sized canid (Pseudalopex gymnocer- Models (Zuur et al., 2009), and we used as a response va- cus) and two species of small carnivores, the Molina’s riable the sum per site of the number of independent pho- hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus chinga) and the lesser grison tographic events (those whose time differed in at least 30 (Galictis cuja) (Canevari and Vaccaro, 2007). min) obtained in each sampling station. As a complement to the collection of data, four partici- The models were ordered using the Akaike selection cri- patory workshops were held during 2015, with the colla- terion corrected for small samples (AICc) (Burnham and boration of rural extension agencies of INTA in Médanos, Anderson, 2002) and the relative importance of each gra- H. Ascasubi and C. de Patagones, Sociedad Rural [Rural dient (predictor variable) was obtained within the group that Society] of C. of Patagones, Federación Agraria [Agrarian grouped 95% of the more plausible models (that is, with federation] of Stroeder and the Sociedad Rural [Rural So- lower AICc). All statistical analyzes we conducted in R ver- ciety] of Villalonga. sion 3.01 (R Development Core Team, 2013).

Use of the habitat Conflicts with farmers We conducted photographic trapping campaigns To characterize the conflicts between the carnivores and (O’Connell et al., 2011) in order to obtain ecological data the farmers we used two methodologies. On the one hand, on carnivore species. These campaigns were conducted semi-structured interviews were conducted between 2008 between January and March 2011, 2012 and 2013, and 49 and 2013 (Kapila and Lyon, 1994; Lucherini and Merino, sites were sampled (Figure 1) . 2008) with rural farmers of different farms (Figure 1). At each site we placed 5 cameras, separated between 1 The questionnaire was aimed at gathering general infor- and 1.5 km. The cameras were active 24 hours for 25-45 days. mation about the interviewee, his or her level of knowledge Every 10 days we controlled their operation every 10 days. about mammals in the region, their perceptions and their attitudes regarding the species of carnivores, and the possi- The sampling effort was calculated as the product bet- ble solutions that would reduce conflicts with wildlife. Addi- ween the number of cameras and the number of sampling tionally, during 2015, four participatory workshops were days (Di Bitetti et al., 2010) and it was 7054 days-trap. held in different locations (Médanos, Villalonga, Stroeder The study area was characterized using 12 variables rela- and Carmen de Patagones) and in which various social ac- ted to the degree of anthropic disturbance, the composition tors (producers, INTA staff, researchers, etc.) participated. of the landscape and its level of fragmentation (Table 1). Broadly, this approach aimed at raising the problem (by To this purpose we used a vector map of the study area the facilitator), and the conduction of an instance of group provided by the remote sensing office of the Hilario Ascasu- discussion, where each of those present was able to ex- bi Agricultural Experimental Station of the National Institute press their position on the problem. Then, the facilitator

Carnivores in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires: ecology and conflicts with farmers August 2017, Argentina 7

identified the factors that emerged as possible influencers in the problem discussed and, once all the ideas were exposed, a group consensus was sought regarding the weighting of each of these factors on a scale between 1 (very important) and 3 (non important).

RESULTS Ecology We obtained 858 events of the four studied carnivores species (74 events of C. chinga, 546 of P. gymnocercus, 193 of L. geoffroyi and 45 of P. concolor), with an average of 18 (range= 0-101) events per site. We identified four gradients (gradient of “anthropization”, gradient of “fragmentation”, gradient of “conservation” and gradient of “forest/monte”) through the analysis of principal components. Generally, the variables were grouped simi- larly in the gradients obtained using the different buffer sizes (Table 2). The “conservation” gradient was the one that presented the highest influence on the four species of carnivores. Ac- cordingly, it was the only significant -and positive- gradient for all species. P. gymnocercus was the only species for which the anthropization gradient was not selected with high probability and whose coefficient was not significant. Figura 1. Map of the study area and location of the camera trapping sites and the sites where the interviews and workshops were For both C. chinga and P. concolor the response to this conducted. gradient was negative, while it was positive for L. geoffro-

Variable (unit) Description

DC (number of fields/km2) Density of fields. Number of properties per km2 Level of DR (km) Distance from the site to the route anthropization DL (km) Distance from the site to the nearest town PC Proportion of the buffer area corresponding to the category “crop”

Landscape PM Proportion of the buffer area corresponding to the category “forest” (montes) composition PP Proportion of the buffer area corresponding to the category “grasslands” PPA Proportion of the buffer area corresponding to the category “grassland with shrubs” Crop edge density calculated as the total length DBC (km/km2) of the edges between the category “crop” and the rest of the categories divided by the buffer area

2 Landscape TPC (km ) Average size of the patches corresponding to the category “crops” fragmentation DPN (n.° parches/km2) Density of the patches corresponding to the category “natural”a BTN (km) Total length of the edges between the category “natural” and the others LSIN (km/km2) Landscape shape index

Table 1. Description of the variables used to evaluate the response of four species of carnivores to the composition and configuration of the landscape in the southwest of Buenos Aires. aThe “natural” category was obtained by merging all vegetation categories except “crops”.

CARUSO, N.1,2; LUENGOS VIDAL, E.M.1,3; LUCHERINI, M.1,2; GUERISOLI, M.1,2; MARTINEZ, S.1; CASANAVE, E.B.1,3 ARTICLES RIA / Vol. 43 / N.º 2

yi. Both the fragmentation gradient and the monte gradient 95.3% of the interviewees stated that they had problems showed high selection probabilities, and significant coeffi- with one of the carnivores. The carnivores considered as cients, only for two species. The fragmentation gradient was “very harmful” by producers are the fox (53%) and the significant for L. geoffroyi and for P. concolor, but with posi- puma (51%), followed by Geoffroy’s cat (20%), the skunk tive and negative coefficients respectively, while the forest (25%) and the grison (11%) (Figure 3B). (monte) gradient was significant for L. geoffroyi and P. gym- The perception of the fox was not significantly different nocercus, with negative coefficients in both cases (Figure 2). from that of the cougar (χ2= 2.16, gdl= 2, p= 0.333), and there were no significant differences between the perceptions of Geoffroy’s cat, the skunk and the grison (χ2= 7, 58; Interviews gdl= 4; p= 0.109). There are important differences (χ2 = We conducted 193 interviews, 54% of them in Patago- 99.45, gdl 2, p <0.001) if we compare the perceptions of the nes and the rest in Villarino. Seventy-five percent of the most harmful carnivores (cougar and fox) with the others interviewees raised cattle and 72%, sheep. Some of them (grison, Geoffroy’s cat and skunk). The cougar and the fox were more frequently considered, at least two fold (bet- performed both activities. Everyone recognized the fox, the ween 2 and 4.5 times), as “very harmful” when compared puma, the skunk and the grison, and some doubts appea- to the other carnivores. There are no significant differences red during the identification of the spotted cats. (χ2 = 8.51, gdl = 4, p = 0.074) between the two ‘sides’ in The fox was the most commonly considered a “common” regards to the percentage of interviewees who classified species (86% of the interviewees), followed by the skunk the carnivores as “very harmful”. (68%), the puma (41%), the Geoffroy’s cat (41%) and the We focused the analysis of conflicts with the cougar and grison (41%) (Figure 3A). the fox on the basis of the previous results. 70% of the inter- When we excluded the the surveys without answers, we viewed people said that they tried to kill the fox and 50% the noted that the fox was perceived as “common” twice as puma. These percentages increase to 90% and 92%, res- much as the puma and Geoffroy’s cat, and the skunk was pectively, if we only consider the respondents who said they over 1.8 times. For its part, Geoffroy’s cat was perceived have losses for these species. Most of those who assigned as “common” 4.6 times more than the Pampas cat. When these two species to the category “very harmful” also opted inquiring about the small cats of the region, 39.5% of the for this type of action, but to a lesser degree: 84% (fox) 78% people recognized Geoffroy’s cat as present in the region, (cougar). There were no differences in the answers for the fox and the cougar (χ2= 0.26, gdl= 2, p= 0.877). the Pampas cat was recognized as present by 10.8% of the interviewees, while the jaguarundí was only recognized as 47% and 55% of the interviewees had losses due to the present in 1% of cases. cougar and the fox, respectively, during the year prior to the

Size of the buffer Variable 1,5 km 3 km 6 km GA GF GC GM GA GF GC GM GA GF GC GM DC - - - DR + + + DL + + + PC + + + PM + + + PP - - - PPA + + + DBC + + + TPC + + - DPN + + + BTN + + + LSIN + + +

Table 2. Correlation of each variable to each of the four components extracted by principal component analysis with normalized Kaiser- varimax rotation for each buffer size. GA: gradient anthropization; GF: gradient fragmentation; GC: gradient conservation; GM: gradient monte (forest).

Carnivores in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires: ecology and conflicts with farmers August 2017, Argentina 9

C. .chinga L. .geoffroyi

GA GA

GC GC

GF GF

GM GM -0.8 -0.4 0 0.4 0.8 -0.6 -0.3 0 0.3 0.6

P. .gymnocercus P. .concolor

GA GA

GC GC

GF GF

GM GM -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 -0.8 -0.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2

Figure 2. Results of the multimodal analysis for the relationship between carnivores and dominant environmental gradients, extracted using principal component analysis (see Table 2). For each species, the estimated value of the parameters of the average model and its 95% confidence interval are shown. GA: gradient anthropization; GF: gradient fragmentation; GC: gradient conservation; GM: gradient monte (forest).

survey. This proportion increases up to 81% for the cougar They also consider that other influential factors in the in- and 69% for the fox when we considered only the farms crease of predation would be the presence of forest (mon- where the carnivore identified as responsible for predation te), the prohibition of cougar hunting and the lower direct and domestic animals were present at the same time. management of the cattle. The percentages were not different between Patagones We also noted that only 16.7% of the participants who and Villarino (χ2= 0.22, gdl= 1, p= 0.641). The biggest cau- had had problems with the cougar changed their way of se of livestock losses, according to our surveys, would be handling livestock, although 75% did try to kill them. Among predation, followed by weather or diseases, and to a lesser those who tried to apply some mitigation measure, 85% extent social causes (Table 3). adopted the nocturnal enclosure, 14.3% used guard animals (in particular donkeys) and 14.3% reinforced the se- The answers varied between the two districts (χ2= 22.08; curity measures in pens. Most of the participants would be df= 2; p<0.001): the people of Villarino attributed the los- willing to apply some mitigation measure, but provided that ses mainly to predation and then to social aspects, while it is guided by experienced people experienced, since they in Patagones the losses were attributed in equal proportion consider that some past attempts have failed. to predation and climate or diseases, attributing very little importance to social causes. A preliminary analysis of the workshops showed that the DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS farmers think that there is an increase in the population of Our results suggest that the intensity of the modification carnivores, specially the cougar, which would be mainly as- of natural environments would be the most influential fac- sociated with the permanent lack of people in the fields. tor in the use of space by carnivores in the southwest of

CARUSO, N.1,2; LUENGOS VIDAL, E.M.1,3; LUCHERINI, M.1,2; GUERISOLI, M.1,2; MARTINEZ, S.1; CASANAVE, E.B.1,3 ARTICLES RIA / Vol. 43 / N.º 2

A 100 90 80-

70 60 50 40 30 % of surveys 20 10 0 Cougar Fox Geoffroy’s Pampas Molina’s Ferret cat cat hog-nosed skunk Common Rare or very rare No Unanswered

B 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 % of surveys 20 10 0 Cougar Fox Geoffroy’s Pampas Molina’s Ferret (161) (177) cat cat hog-nosed (94) (137) (65) skunk (124)

Very harmful Little harmful No harmful

Figure 3. Results of the 193 interviews conducted with rural producers in the districts Villarino and Patagones, province of Buenos Aires. (A) Perception of the total of interviewees on the abundance of carnivores. (B) Perception of the interviewees on the effect of each carnivore on livestock. The number of respondents who answered the question is shown in parentheses.

Buenos Aires, confirming the relevance of the processes of Comparatively, the smaller number of significant dimen- alteration of natural landscapes for carnivores. sions for the skunk and the fox suggests that these species would have a greater adaptability. The spatial niches of Geoffroy’s cat and cougar would be affected by a greater number of factors when compared The linear responses of opposite sign of the cougar to the other two species. This could be due to the fact that towards conservation and anthropization gradients support these carnivores are the most demanding species of the the hypothesis that this cat avoids highly modified sites and group and that they choose particular characteristics within its preference for the natural ones. These results agree each of the identified gradients. with those obtained in a previous work where the habitat

Carnivores in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires: ecology and conflicts with farmers August 2017, Argentina 11

Depredación (%) Causas sociales (%) Clima o enfermedades (%) Villarino 45 32 23 Patagones 46 8 46 Total 46 20 35

Table 3. Major causes of livestock losses according to the interviewees, expressed as percentages of interviewees who mentioned each of them.

was modelled for the species and a strong association was types of processes are difficult to modify since they require found to the grasslands with shrubs, relatively conserved local and regional policies that encourage and revalue agri- environments and far from the urban settlements (Caruso cultural practices. et al., 2015). On the other hand, some villagers attempted to apply mi- The environmental modification component presented no tigation measures for predation, but hunting seems to be significance for the cougar, contrary to what was expected the simplest tool. Despite this, part of the community is wi- based on the reports of local producers, according to which lling to test alternative mitigation tools, but local policies that the forest (monte) would be the preferred habitat of this car- support and guide their use would be necessary. nivore. However, the “conservation” gradient also includes Until now, the results obtained indicate that, from the those sites with a high proportion of grassland with shrubs, viewpoint of the settlers, the conflicts with carnivores can which could function as favorable environments for this not be solved without government support policies, both lo- species (Caruso et al., 2015; Caruso et al., 2016a). cal and regional. Also, the type of response towards the fragmentation gradient suggests that the cougar can endure certain levels of fragmentation of natural environments, in accordance with ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS what has been proposed by other authors (Crooks et al., 2011; De Angelo et al., 2011; Caruso et al., 2015). To rural producers for allowing us to conduct activities in their fields. To the staff of EEA INTA H. Ascasubi and its As expected for the fox, which is considered as associa- dependencies for the logistical aid. To CONICET, the Wild ted to open environments (Redford and Eisenberg, 1992; Felid Association, Felidae Conservation Fund and SGCyT- Lucherini and Luengos Vidal, 2008; Di Bitetti et al., 2009), UNS for the financial support. To the students of the Master such as grasslands, this species avoided those sites with of International Ecology (Université de Sherbrooke) who a higher proportion of forests (montes). However, the rela- did internships in the GECM. tionship with the conservation component suggests that the species would use both the most preserved sites (such as those furthest away from the roads and villages, and with smaller fields), as well as those with opposite conditions. BIBLIOGRAPHY This situation could be the result of an interaction bet- BAKER, P.J.; BOITANI, L.; HARRIS, S.; SAUNDERS, G.; WHI- ween the high flexibility the Pampas fox has to use different TE, P.C. 2008. Terrestrial carnivores and human food production: impact and management. Mammal Review 38, 123-166. environments and other factors, such as, for example, the high hunting pressure suffered in some areas or the com- BOUZA, M.E.; ARANDA-RICKERT, A.; BRIZUELA, M.M.; WIL- SON, M.G.; SASAL, M.C.; SIONE, S.M.; BEGHETTO, S.; GA- petition with other carnivores. BIOUD, E.A.; OSZUST, J.D.; BRAN, D.E. 2016. Economics of The interviews and the workshops are tools that allow us Land Degradation in Argentina. En: Economics of Land Degrada- to contrast the field information with the perception of the tion and Improvement–A Global Assessment for Sustainable Deve- inhabitants and this comparison suggests that the cougar lopment. Springer, pp. 291-326. could be considered more common than it really would be, BROWN, A.; MARTINEZ ORTIZ, U.; ACERBO, M.; CORCUE- possibly due to the imaginary of the people (Caruso et al. RA, J. 2006. La situación ambiental argentina 2005. Fundación al., 2016b). Vida Silvestre. Buenos Aires. BURNHAM, K.P.; ANDERSON, D.R. 2002. Model selection and On the one hand, although there is not yet a quantifica- multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. tion of the real economic impact of predation on livestock by Springer. Nueva York. carnivores, these data clearly demonstrate the existence of CANEVARI, M.; VACCARO, O. 2007. Guía de mamíferos del sur a conflict, at least in the case of foxes and cougars. Accor- de América del Sur. LOLA. Buenos Aires. ding to the producers, there would be an increase in pre- CARO, T. 2010. Conservation by proxy: indicator, umbrella, dation, favored above all by the abandonment of the fields, keystone, flagship, and other surrogate species. Island Press. related to macroeconomic and also social factors. These Washington.

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CARUSO, N.1,2; LUENGOS VIDAL, E.M.1,3; LUCHERINI, M.1,2; GUERISOLI, M.1,2; MARTINEZ, S.1; CASANAVE, E.B.1,3