ISSN 1027-2992
CATnewsN° 64 | Autumn 2016 02
CATnews is the newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group, Editors: Christine & Urs Breitenmoser a component of the Species Survival Commission SSC of the Co-chairs IUCN/SSC International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It�������� is pub��� Cat Specialist Group lished twice a year, and is available to members and the Friends of KORA, Thunstrasse 31, 3074 Muri, the Cat Group. Switzerland Tel ++41(31) 951 90 20 For joining the Friends of the Cat Group please contact Fax ++41(31) 951 90 40 Christine Breitenmoser at [email protected]
CATnews is produced with financial assistance from the Friends of the Cat Group.
Design: barbara surber, werk’sdesign gmbh Layout: Tabea Lanz & Christine Breitenmoser Cover Photo: Serval Print: Stämpfli Publikationen AG, Bern, Switzerland Photo P. Meier
ISSN 1027-2992 © IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group
The designation of the geographical entities in this publication, and the representation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
CATnews 64 Autumn 2016 short communication
SERGIO ESCOBAR-LASSO1,2*, LUIS G. FONSECA3, MARGARITA GIL-FERNÁNDEZ1, WILBERT N. of 386.28 km2 and is part of a continuous VILLACHICA3, STEPHANNY ARROYO-ARCE4, IAN THOMSON4 AND JOEL SÁENZ1 block of 1,630 km2 of protected land within the Guanacaste Conservation Area (Janzen First record of consumption 1988). Santa Rosa National Park protects one of the best-preserved dry forests of of olive ridley sea turtle by a Central America (Janzen 1988). The Naran� jo beach is located in the south-western cougar part of Santa Rosa National Park; it has an exten-sion of 5.640 m (Fig. 1). This is an Knowledge on the ecological relationship between cougars Puma concolor and sea important nesting beach for the green Che- turtles may contribute to the conservation of cougars, whose bulk of terrestrial prey lonia mydas, the olive ridley and the lea� continues to decline throughout their range due to poaching. This work describes therback Dermochelys coriacea sea turtles for the first time the consumption of olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea by (Cornelius 1986). a cougar. This event occurred at Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica. We conducted morning surveys on Naran� jo beach to evaluate sea turtle predation In the ocean, the most common predators a wide variety of prey (Sunquist & Sunquist by jaguar. On the morning of 6 December of adult sea turtles are sharks and killer 2002, Nielsen et al. 2015). Although cougars 2015 at 06:20 h we found a freshly preda� whales Orcinus orca (Heithaus et al. 2008). have the capacity to catch and kill sea tur� ted olive ridley sea turtle (10°46’28.62’’ N / When these turtles are nesting at the beach, tles, and both species are sympatric in many 85°39’42.97’’ W; Fig. 1) and set up two ca� only four predators have been recorded: ja� locations (e.g. Santa Rosa National Park of mera traps (Bushnell Trophy Cam HD MAX guars Panthera onca, American crocodiles Costa Rica; Cornelius 1986), cougars have 119678) next to the carcass. We tied the Crocodylus acutus, coyotes Canis latrans never been recorded as sea turtle predators, carcass to a nearby tree, to prevent the and humans (Ortiz et al. 1997, Drake et even if the energy cost and risks to catch predator or scavengers moving it. A male al. 2001, Aguirre et al. 2006, Heithaus et a sea turtle are much lower than to catch cougar visited the carcass on 6 December al. 2008, Alfaro et al. 2016). In terrestrial other prey like deer, peccaries, and agouties. (Fig. 2A); it began feeding at 18:22 h (Fig. 2B) ecosystems, there are many species that The aim of this work is to describe the first and finished at 18:50 h (Fig. 2C). During this could act as potential predators of adult sea record of olive ridley sea turtle consumption time the cougar consumed almost the entire 04 turtles; nevertheless, there are no scienti� by a cougar at Naranjo beach, Santa Rosa carcass (Fig. 2D). fic reports other than the ones mentioned National Park, Costa Rica. Due to methodological limitations we can� above. A potential predator of sea turtles Santa Rosa National Park is located in the not assure that the cougar was acting as a is the cougar, which is considered an op� province of Guanacaste on the north-west predator returning to its own kill. However, portunistic carnivore with the ability to kill Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It covers an area the cougar might be acting as a scavenger, because all predation events recorded to date had been made by jaguars (see Alfaro et al. 2016). Nevertheless, this is the first record of olive ridley sea turtle consump- tion by cougar (Rau & Jiménez 2002, Rosas- Rosas et al. 2003, De La Torre & De La Riva 2009, Zanón-Martínez et al. 2012, Zúñiga & Muñoz-Pedreros 2014). Seasonal fluctuations in prey availability often trigger temporary alterations on indi� vidual feeding behaviour and the exploita� tion of alternative prey species (Carrillo et al. 2009). In Santa Rosa National Park, two consecutive “El Niño” oscillations may have changed the distribution and abundance of the main prey of the cougar (e.g. White- tailed deer, Central American agouti; Mon� talvo-Guadamuz 2012), which in turn may have led to the exploitation of alternative prey species, like the sea turtle. Additional� ly, the scavenging cougar was in poor body condition, with clearly visible spinal cord and hipbones (Fig. 2D). This could be a reflection Fig. 1. Location of the first record (orange box) of consumption of olive ridley sea turtle of prey scarcity or sickness; which also may Lepidochelys olivacea by cougar Puma concolor at Naranjo Beach, Santa Rosa National has motivated the exploitation of sea turtle. Park, Costa Rica. Therefore, sea turtles can be key resources
CATnews 64 Autumn 2016 consumption of sea turtle by a cougar in periods when the availability of other prey is low, similarly to what has been recorded for jaguars (Veríssimo et al. 2012). Knowledge on the ecological relationship between cougars and sea turtles may contri� bute to the conservation of cougars, whose bulk of terrestrial prey continues to decline throughout its range by poaching (Nielsen et al. 2015). Moreover, in Santa Rosa National Park, climate change is expected to heavily impact environmental conditions (Alvarado et al. 2012); this could change the availabi� lity of current prey of the cougar and force him to consume new species.
Acknowledgements This work was made possible by a graduate scho� larship from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
References Aguirre A. A., Gardner S. C., Marsh J. C., Delga� Fig. 2. First record of a cougar consuming an olive ridley sea turtle at Naranjo Beach, do S. G., Limpus C. J. & Nichols W. J. 2006. Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica. Notice that the condition of the cougar is deterio- Hazards associated with the consumption of rated (i.e. the spinal bones are clearly visible; Photos Luis G. Fonseca). sea turtle meat and eggs: A review for health care workers and the general public. Eco� Janzen D. H. 1988. Guanacaste National Park: of marine turtles: conflict between flagship Health 3, 141-153. Tropical Ecological and Biocultural Restaura� species in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. Oryx 46, Alfaro L. D., Montalvo V., Guimaraes F., Saenz C., tion. In Rehabilitating damaged ecosystems. 340-347. Cruz J., Morazan F. & Carrillo E. 2016. Cha� Cairns, J. (Ed.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, Flori� Zanón-Martínez J. I., Travaini A., Zapata S., Proco� 05 racterization of attack events on sea turtles da, pp. 143-192. pio D. & Santillán M. A. 2012. The ecological (Chelonia mydas and Lepidochelys olivacea) by Montalvo-Guadamuz V. H. 2012. Cambios en la role of native and introduced species in the jaguar (Panthera onca) in Naranjo sector, Santa abundancia, actividad temporal y dieta de ja� diet of the puma Puma concolor in southern Rosa National Park, Costa Rica. International guar (Panthera onca), otros felinos y sus pre� Patagonia. Oryx 46, 106-111. Journal of Conservation Science 7, 101-108. sas en el Parque Nacional Santa Rosa, Costa Zúñiga A. H. & Muñoz-Pedreros A. 2014. Hábi� Alvarado L. F., Contreras W., Alfaro M. & Jime� Rica. MSc thesis. Universidad Nacional de tos alimentarios de Puma concolor (Carni� nez E. 2012. Escenarios de cambio climático Costa Rica. 80 pp. vora, Felidae) en bosques fragmentados del regionalizados para Costa Rica. Ministerio del Nielsen C., Thompson D., Kelly M. & Lopez-Gonzalez sur de Chile. Mastozoología Neotropical 21, Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones (MI� C. A. 2015. Puma concolor. The IUCN Red List of 157-161. NAET), Costa Rica. 150 pp. Threatened Species 2015: e.T18868A50663436. Carrillo E., Fuller T. K. & Saenz J. C. 2009. Jaguar http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4. 1 Instituto Internacional en Conservación y Ma- (Panthera onca) hunting activity: effects of prey RLTS.T18868A50663436.en. nejo de Vida Silvestre. ICOMVIS. Universidad distribution and availability. Journal of Tropical Ortiz R. M., Plotkin P. T. & Owens D. W. 1997. Pre� Nacional de Costa Rica, Heredia, Costa Rica. Ecology 25, 563-567. dation on olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys 2 Fundación R.A.N.A. (Restauración de Ambientes Cornelius S. E. 1986. The sea turtles of Santa Rosa olivacea) by the American crocodile (Crocody- Neotropicales Alterados), Heredia, Costa Rica. National Park. Fundación de Parques Nacio� lus acutus) at Playa Nancite, Costa Rica. Chelo� 3 Biocenosis Marina, Trinidad de Moravia, San nales, Costa Rica. Monograph. San José. nian Conservation Biology 2, 585-587. José, Costa Rica. De La Torre J. A. & De La Riva G. 2009. Food habits Rau J. & Jiménez J. 2002. Diet of puma (Puma 4 Coastal Jaguar Conservation, 126-3100 Santo of pumas (Puma concolor) in a semiarid region concolor, Carnivora: Felidae) in coastal and An� Domingo, Heredia, Costa Rica. of Central Mexico. Mastozoología Neotropical dean ranges of southern Chile. Studies on Ne� *
CATnews 64 Autumn 2016