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Introduction
Human-wildlife conflicts have been identified as the most significant cause of adult mortality in large carnivores and may lead to significant population declines, even within protected areas (Woodroffe & Ginsberg, 1998). Consequently, efforts to identify and implement mitigation strategies for human-carnivore conflicts are required (Inskip & Zimmermann, 2009), especially at reserve borders and in buffer zones where contact between humans and carnivores is more likely (Woodroffe & Ginsberg, 1998; Sunquist, 2002; Crawshaw, 2004). However, to propose viable and effective site-specific interventions a better understanding of spatial and temporal patterns of such conflicts is needed (Treves et al., 2006; Inskip & Zimmermann, 2009; Rosas-Rosas et al., 2010).
In the neotropics human-carnivore conflicts typically arise when jaguars Panthera onca and pumas Puma concolor attack, or are blamed for attacks on, livestock, often resulting in the elimination of the individual carnivore believed responsible (Crawshaw, 2004). A review of studies addressing human-felid conflicts (Inskip & Zimmermann, 2009) concluded there was a large gap in information on this issue for certain geographical areas and species. Although the predation of livestock by jaguars and pumas has been extensively studied in South America (Quigley & Crawshaw, 1992; Hoogesteijn et al., 1993; Hoogesteijn, 2001; Mazolli et al., 2002; Conforti & Azevedo, 2003; Polisar et al., 2003; Crawshaw, 2004; Graham et al., 2004; Zimmermann et al., 2005; Michalski et al., 2006; Azevedo & Murray, 2007; Azevedo, 2008; Palmeira et al., 2008), few studies have examined this issue in Mesoamerica (Rabinowitz, 1986; Saenz & Carrillo, 2002; Rosas-Rosas et al., 2008). As a result, little is known about predation on livestock in this region and it is not clear if the pattern of predation is similar to areas previously studied, or if husbandry practices and landscape features (i.e. possible mitigation factors) affect the occurrence of human-carnivore conflicts in the same manner throughout the neotropics. Conflict mitigation efforts have only recently been implemented in Mesoamerica and therefore detailed studies of this issue are required, especially in areas for which information is lacking such as the tropical lowlands of Guatemala.
The northern Petén District of Guatemala, along with adjacent protected areas in Belize and Mexico, forms part of the largest continuous forest in Mesoamerica, the Maya Forest (Grunberg, 2000). The Maya...