Inland Atlantic Forest of Eastern Paraguay:
A Preliminary Analysis
Gerald L. Zuercher
Ph.D. Candidate, Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Kansas State University, 205 Leasure Hall,
Manhattan, KS 66506; (785) 532-6336; (fax) (785) 532-7159; Research Associate, Sunset Zoological park;
Philip S. Gipson
Unit Leader, Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Kansas State University, 205 Leasure Hall, Manhattan,
KS 66506; (785) 532-6070; (fax) (785) 532-7159; gipson@ksu.edu
Kim Hill
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131; (505) 277-1536;
(fax) (505) 277-0874; kimhill@unm.edu
Abstract
Jaguar
(Panthera onca), puma (Puma concolor), and possibly six species of small cats (ocelot,Leopardus pardali
s; margay, Leopardus wiedii; oncilla, Leopardus tigrinus; Geoffroy's cat,Oncifelis geoffroyi,
pampas cat, Oncifelis colocolo, jaguarundi, Herpailurus yagouaroundi) coexistwithin Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve in eastern Paraguay. At the landscape level, this
64,000-hectare island of Inland Atlantic Forest, surrounded by agricultural land, is a mosaic of
forest habitats and interspersed grasslands. Habitats on the reserve include low, medium, and
high forest, as well as dry and wet grasslands. The adaptive nature of most predators led us to
predict that felids would occur uniformly across habitats. Tests of independence between species
and habitats, however, suggest distinct associations between felids and habitats. Explanations
for habitat affinities include interference competition or simply following prey to their preferred
habitats. Thus, while felids in the inland Atlantic forest may be habitat generalists across their
entire range, they exhibit some habitat preferences within Mbaracayú reserve, possibly as an
adaptation to interspecific competition and/or prey availability. Further research is needed to
determine whether these patterns continue long-term or are an artifact of the timing of our
current data collection efforts.
