Data from: Wildfire and drought alter the ecology of jaguars and co-occurring mammals in the world’s largest wetland
Data files
Jul 14, 2025 version files 10.75 KB
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Eriksson.et.al.2025.GCB.zip
8.08 KB
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README.md
2.66 KB
Abstract
Climate change-driven disturbances are reshaping ecosystems worldwide with profound implications for biodiversity. We leveraged a long-term dataset and a natural before-after-control-impact experimental framework to evaluate the impacts of wildfire and concurrent drought on jaguars and the terrestrial mammal community in northern Pantanal. Using camera traps and jaguar scats collected before, during, and after a large wildfire, we: (1) assessed the immediate and short-term impacts of fire on jaguar demography, abundance, activity, space use, and diet; (2) determined whether changes in mammal species richness and relative abundance occurred; (3) assessed whether these changes were driven by fire, drought, or both; and (4) tested competing hypotheses regarding community structure. We hypothesized that abundant aquatic prey either allow jaguars to suppress terrestrial herbivores through apparent competition, or alternatively, terrestrial mammals are released from predation and instead regulated by bottom-up resources. We found that jaguar activity initially declined post-fire but rebounded over time, with a significant increase in abundance and recruitment one year post-fire. Annual recapture rates of individual jaguars remained similar after fire, indicating that resident jaguars survived the fires and maintained their home ranges, while a large number of immigrants arrived from other areas. Mammal species richness and relative abundance increased across the study period and were more strongly correlated with drought-induced changes than with fire-related impacts. Jaguars maintained their specialization on aquatic prey, supporting the hypothesis that consumption of aquatic prey reduces predation pressure on terrestrial mammals. Our findings suggest this area may serve as a climate refuge for jaguars and other wildlife, providing stability amid extreme climatic events. We emphasize the importance of maintaining such refugia and implementing proactive fire management to mitigate future disturbances.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7sqv9s54x
Description of the data and file structure
Data and R code used in "Wildfire and drought alter the ecology of jaguars and co-occurring mammals in the world’s largest wetland" Eriksson et al., (2025) Global Change Biology
Files and variables
rcode_all.R
Contains R code for all models:
- Jaguar demographics: Annual abundance, survival and recruitment
- Jaguar activity: BACI model, Annual model, Immediate effects model
- Species richness BACI model
- Mammal species activity post-fire in control vs impact sites
Jaguar Demography Data:
adult_caps.csv
Adult jaguar detection histories:
Each row represents a jaguar individual (1 = detected, 0 = not detected) and each column is a session.
sex.csv
Sex of each adult jaguar individual:
- 1 = Male
- 2 = Female
- NA = Unknown
js_pdot_sdot_sex_dayscale.txt
Jolly-Seber Model
Jaguar Activity Models
jag.days.csv
Jaguar activity
Columns:
- 'Merged_ID' = Camera station ID
- 'Treatment' = Control vs Impact
- 'Status' = Prefire vs Postfire
- 'Year' = Survey year
- 'Days_low' = Number of days the camera was deployed for during the dry/low river season
- 'Jag_days' = the number of 24-hour periods with a jaguar detection
jaguar_days_month.csv
Monthly jaguar activity immediately before and after the fire
Columns:
- 'Month_chr' = Survey month
- 'Days' = Number of deployment days
- 'Jag_days' = the number of 24-hour periods with a jaguar detection
Species Richness
richness_dry.csv and richness_wet.csv
Species richness per dry season/wet season
Columns:
- 'Status' = Prefire vs Postfire
- 'Merged_ID' = Camera station ID
- 'Treatment' = Control vs Impact
- 'Richness' = Species richness
- 'Total_days' = Number of monitoring days from August-November
Mammal species activity post-fire in control vs impact sites
species_days.csv
Mammal species activity
Columns:
- 'Treatment' = Control vs Impact
- 'Days_low' = Number of monitoring days
- Species columns:
- 'ALCA' = Howler monkey
- 'SACA' = Azaras's capuchin
- 'DAAZ' = Azara's agouti
- 'HYHY' = Capybara
- 'LEPA' = Ocelot
- 'BLDI' = Marsh deer
- 'MYTR' = Giant anteater
- 'PHOP' = Common four-eyed opossum
- 'PTBR' = Giant otter
- 'ROSP' = Small rodents
- 'TATE' = South American tapir
- 'LOLO' = Neotropical otter
- 'CAAP' = Brazilian guinea pig
dietdata.csv
Jaguar diet data
Code/software
'rcode_all.R' contains r code for all models