Check List 16(3): 563-570, doi: 10.15560/16.3.563
Big cats are still walking in El Salvador: first photographic records of Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771) and an overview of historical records in the country
Andrea Morales-Rivas‡, Francisco S. Álvarez§|, Xochilt Pocasangre-Orellana|, Luis Girón¶, Gloria N. Guerra#, Reynaldo Martínez#, Juan Pablo Domínguez¤, Franz Leibl«, Christoph Heibl«‡ University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany§ UDP Ciencias Neotropicales, San Salvador, El Salvador| Fundación Naturaleza El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador¶ Asociación Territorios Vivos El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador# Parque Nacional Montecristo, Metapán, El Salvador¤ BioSistemas Network, San Salvador, El Salvador« Bavarian Forest National Park, Grafenau, Germany
Corresponding author: Andrea Morales-Rivas ( moralesae14@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Diego Astúa © Andrea Morales-Rivas, Francisco S. Álvarez, Xochilt Pocasangre-Orellana, Luis Girón, Gloria N. Guerra, Reynaldo Martínez, Juan Pablo Domínguez, Franz Leibl, Christoph Heibl. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Morales-Rivas A, Álvarez FS, Pocasangre-Orellana X, Girón L, Guerra GN, Martínez R, Domínguez JP, Leibl F, Heibl C (2020) Big cats are still walking in El Salvador: first photographic records of Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771) and an overview of historical records in the country. Check List 16(3): 563-570. https://doi.org/10.15560/16.3.563 |  |
Abstract
The presence of Puma, Puma concolor, has been controversial in El Salvador due to the lack of published, verifiable data. We surveyed 119 sites in Montecristo National Park and 17 sites in the Río Sapo basin using wildlife cameras. We detected Pumas in both areas, representing the first photographic records for El Salvador. We call for a national Puma conservation strategy with research in basic ecology and migration corridors, regulation of hunting, management of livestock losses, and public acceptance programs. The Río Sapo basin should be granted formal protection.
Keywords
Camera trap, cougar, Central America, distribution, mammals, Montecristo, Río Sapo