New article, Peccaries are on important conservation tool!
This article comes from Vanderbilt alumni, Michaela Peterson, who has completed her Ph.D. in the Spring 2024. Michaela has worked alongside Dr. Malu Jorge and has written several articles addressing conservation threats currently affecting the Neotropics.
This study explores how deforestation and habitat fragmentation impact forest ecosystems, not only by causing species loss but also by disrupting essential ecological processes. While the model we developed can be easily adapted to a variety of species, we focus on a case study using movement data from the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), a wide-ranging keystone species in Neotropical forests, to identify critical thresholds of forest loss.
Michaela and Dr. Jorge’s findings highlight:
- When forest cover drops below 40%, the landscape becomes so fragmented that animals, like white-lipped peccaries, can no longer move around properly, disrupting key ecological processes such as seed dispersal and predator-prey interactions.
- To maintain the species’ natural movement patterns, at least 60% of the forest must remain intact.
- The negative effects of forest loss are made even worse when the remaining habitat is not only reduced but also highly fragmented into smaller, isolated patches.
Click here to see article