Courtney Anderson
Species across the world are going extinct at an alarming rate and the changing climate will only exacerbate this. In the face of this global extinction crisis, there is mounting pressure for countries to establish protected areas and work to ensure the preservation of their natural treasures. There is growing research, however, that suggests that conventional systems of “protection” may not be as effective as once thought. The Madidi National Protected Area in the Bolivian Amazon is actually a collection of adjacent protected areas of different classifications, with different management strategies. An iconic species of the area, the jaguar, is under considerable pressure from habitat loss and illegal hunting connected to the international wildlife trade. Taking advantage of this region’s unique combination of management techniques in a contiguous forest, my research uses camera trap data to compare jaguar populations among different areas in order to assess any potential effect. In addition to contributing to important monitoring projects in the park, my objective is to better understand how use of protected areas and their management impacts the species that they are intended to protect