THERYA, 2025, Vol. 16(2):XXX-XXX

Seasonal Composition of the Diet of Free-Range Equines
in Northern Coahuila, Mexico

José Javier Ochoa-Espinoza1 , José Isidro Uvalle-Sauceda2 , César Martín Cantú-Ayala2 , Fernando Noel González-Saldívar2 , Eloy Alejandro Lozano-Cavazos1 , José Antonio Hernández-Herrera1* , Fernando Isaac Gastelum-Mendoza2 and Michelle Ivonne Ramos-Robles3 .

1Departamento de Recursos Naturales Renovables, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro. Calzada Antonio Narro No 1923, Coahuila, México 25315. 844-238 6030, E-mail: jjochoae@gmail.com, (JJO-E); alejandrolzn@yahoo.com, (EAL-C), (JAH-H)

2Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Carretera Nacional 85, Km 145, Nuevo León, México 67700. Email: juvalle.uanl@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5415-8928 (JIU-S); cantu.ayala.cesar@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3903-9802 (CMC-A); fer1960_08_10@hotmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2197-5790 (FG_S); gastelummendozaisaac@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5701-488X (FIG-M)

3Departamento de Botánica, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro. Calzada Antonio Narro No 1923, Saltillo, México, 25315. E-mail: ramosrobles.m@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0692-5608 (MIR-R)

*Corresponding author: heheja@yahoo.com (JAH-H)

Felids play a major role in ecosystems as apex and mesopredators of numerous vertebrate species. Thus, a decline in their populations can directly impact ecosystem functioning. Recently, extreme weather events, such as prolonged droughts, have posed increasing threats to tropical forests. Implementing mitigation measures, such as providing artificial water troughs, can help alleviate water shortages for wildlife during the dry season. However, limited information is available on how species respond to such mitigation measures in tropical ecosystems, particularly concerning visitation rates and temporal patterns of use by felids. We hypothesized that water troughs would be used with similar frequency, irrespective of their spatial arrangement. Additionally, we anticipated that smaller species would exhibit lower visitation rates and reduced temporal overlap compared to larger felid species. Specifically, we evaluated the broad-scale spatial variation in visitation rates to water troughs by felid species and the degree of overlap in activity patterns to infer potential interspecific avoidance. We analyzed five years of camera-trap monitoring data collected at artificial water troughs in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Campeche, Mexico. We measured visitation rates and compared frequencies among water troughs. Temporal overlap was used to evaluate similarities in diel activity patterns among felids. The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and puma (Puma concolor) were the most frequently observed species at water troughs, whereas the margay (L. wiedii) was rarely detected. Felid activity at water troughs was mainly crepuscular and nocturnal. We found greater temporal similarity between jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas than with ocelots. Overall, artificial water troughs are an essential management strategy for providing water to felids. Higher visitation rates occurred during the dry years. Temporal similarity between jaguars and pumas suggested that visits by larger species to water resources occur regardless of potential competitors, whereas ocelots seem to avoid them. As prolonged droughts become extreme, management interventions that provide water sources for felid species and other wildlife will be essential for the persistence of their populations in tropical ecosystems.

Los félidos desempeñan un papel fundamental en los ecosistemas como depredadores tope y mesodepredadores de numerosas especies de vertebrados. Por lo tanto, la disminución de sus poblaciones puede afectar directamente el funcionamiento del ecosistema. Recientemente, fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, como sequías prolongadas, han aumentado las amenazas a los bosques tropicales. La implementación de medidas de mitigación, como la provisión de bebederos artificiales, puede contribuir a aliviar la escasez de agua para la fauna silvestre durante la estación seca. Sin embargo, existe información limitada sobre la respuesta de las especies a dichas medidas en los ecosistemas tropicales, en particular en lo que respecta a las tasas de visitación y los patrones temporales de uso por parte de los félidos. Planteamos la hipótesis de que los abrevaderos se utilizarían con una frecuencia similar, independientemente de su disposición espacial. Además, esperamos que las especies más pequeñas presenten tasas de visita más bajas y un traslape temporal menor en comparación con las especies de félidos más grandes. Específicamente, evaluamos la variación espacial en las tasas de visita a bebederos por parte de félidos y el grado de traslape en los patrones de actividad para inferir una posible evitación interespecífica. Analizamos cinco años de datos de monitoreo con cámaras trampa recolectados en bebederos artificiales en la Reserva de la Biosfera de Calakmul, Campeche, México. Medimos las tasas de visita y comparamos las frecuencias entre bebederos. Medimos el traslape temporal para evaluar las similitudes en los patrones de actividad entre los félidos. El ocelote (Leopardus pardalis) y el puma (Puma concolor) fueron las especies observadas con mayor frecuencia en los bebederos, mientras que el tigrillo (L. wiedii) fue detectada con poca frecuencia. La actividad de los félidos en los bebederos fue principalmente crepuscular y nocturna. Encontramos mayor similitud temporal entre jaguares (Panthera onca) y pumas que con ocelotes. En general, los bebederos artificiales son una estrategia de manejo esencial para proporcionar agua a los félidos. Las tasas de visita más altas ocurrieron durante los años más secos. La mayor similitud temporal entre jaguares y pumas sugiere que las visitas de especies grandes a los recursos hídricos ocurren independientemente de los competidores potenciales, mientras que los ocelotes parecen evitar a ambos. A medida que las sequías se vuelven extremas, las estrategias de manejo que proporcionen fuentes de agua para las especies de félidos y otros animales silvestres serán esenciales para la persistencia de sus poblaciones en los ecosistemas tropicales.

Keywords: climate change, extreme droughts, Panthera onca, Mayan rainforest, neotropical forests, Leopardus pardalis, Puma concolor.

DOI:10.12933/therya-25-XXXX ISSN 2007-3364

Introduction

Felid species play an important role in ecosystems by preying on a wide range of small to large-sized terrestrial vertebrates, thereby influencing community structure through trophic cascade effects (Gittleman et al. 2001; Lucherini et al. 2009; Terborgh et al. 2010; Bogoni et al. 2020). The reduction or extirpation of felid populations has direct consequences for ecosystem functioning (Ripple et al. 2014; Wallach et al. 2015; Bogoni et al. 2020). For example, jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor), as top predators in the tropical and subtropical ecosystems of the Neotropical region, exert both direct and indirect influences on communities of medium-to-large mammal species (Gómez-Ortiz and Monroy-Vilchis 2013; Hernández-SaintMartín et al. 2015; Ávila-Nájera et al. 2018a; Galindo-Aguilar et al. 2022). On the other hand, medium-sized felids, such as the jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi), margay (Leopardus wiedii), and ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), primarily prey on small-sized terrestrial vertebrates (Macdonald and Loveridge 2010). However, in the absence of jaguars and pumas, ocelots have been observed to shift their diet toward medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates (Moreno et al. 2006; Flores-Martínez et al. 2022).

Felid species are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss, hunting, wildlife trafficking, and prey declines, all of which may contribute to reductions in their abundance and range (Gittleman et al. 2001; Ceballos and Oliva 2005; McCarthy et al. 2017; Quigley et al. 2017; Goodrich et al. 2022; Nicholson et al. 2024; Stein et al. 2024). In Mexico, the jaguar, ocelot, and margay are categorized as “Endangered”, while the jaguarundi is classified as “Threatened” (DOF 2010). Water is essential for felids for several physiological processes, including digestion, metabolism, temperature regulation, and the disposal of metabolic waste (Bothma 2005). Felids can obtain water from food or natural deposits (Delgado-Martínez et al. 2023), and even by consuming fruits (Bothma 2005; Kitchener et al. 2010). Overall, water scarcity significantly affects the abundance, spatial behavior, and interactions within the carnivore guild, posing an additional threat to their persistence under climate change scenarios (Prugh et al. 2018; West et al. 2024).

Big cats, such as jaguars and pumas, influence medium-sized felid species through interference competition and intraguild predation, modulating how these species use resources (Ritchie and Johnson 2009). In several sites across South America, pumas have been shown to negatively affect ocelots, margays, and jaguarundis (Gil-Sánchez et al. 2021). Ocelots exhibited temporal segregation from pumas (Finnegan et al. 2021), while pumas tend to avoid jaguars (Contreras-Díaz et al. 2021; Galindo-Aguilar et al. 2022). In contrast, in parts of Central America, big cats do not appear to influence the habitat use or daily activity patterns of medium-sized felid species (Santos et al. 2019).

The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR), southeastern Mexico, is a protected area within the Mayan Forest, which is part of the largest rainforest in Mesoamerica (Hansen et al. 2008). Several studies have demonstrated that this region offers favorable ecological conditions for the presence of medium-to-large felid species, including the jaguar, puma, margay, ocelot, and jaguarundi (Rodríguez-Soto et al. 2011; Espinosa et al. 2018; Jędrzejewski et al. 2018; Lehnen and Lombardi 2023). While deforestation represents a major threat to the Maya Forest (Ferrer-Paris et al. 2019), irregular rainfall has recently emerged as an additional risk factor for wildlife (Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2010; Pérez-Cortez et al. 2012; Pérez-Flores et al. 2021; Sandoval-Serés et al. 2022). Water scarcity, driven by climate change, is becoming an increasingly significant threat to tropical ecosystems (Bennett et al. 2023).

In recent years, ponds (locally named aguadas) in the Maya Forest have been observed to dry up well before replenishment during the rainy season (Garcia Gil et al. 2002; Dobler-Morales 2018). In response, wildlife managers have implemented artificial water sources for use by wildlife (Rosenstock et al. 1999) as a strategy to mitigate the consequences of dry-season water shortages. This approach has been shown to support the short-term maintenance of wildlife populations (Epaphras et al. 2008; Mandujano and Hernández 2019). The availability of water bodies is a critical factor influencing the habitat use by jaguars and pumas (Crawshaw et al. 1991; De Angelo et al. 2011). When water becomes scarce, some mammals change their usual behavior (Pacifici et al. 2015), often concentrating their activity around remaining water sources (Redfern et al. 2003). Although water can be obtained through food consumption, this is not always sufficient to meet metabolic and thermoregulatory demands (Simpson et al. 2011). In consequence, water scarcity represents a considerable challenge for felid species. Moreover, the pressure exerted by limited water availability during periods of extreme drought can facilitate intraguild predation interactions (Perera-Romero et al. 2021).

In the CBR, artificial water troughs have been installed and are actively managed to provide wildlife with access to water during the dry season. However, their influence on felid species remains understudied, including visitation rates to these resources, activity patterns, the impact of resource location on visitation, and the potential for temporal segregation driven by interspecific competition (Rosenstock et al. 1999). When ecological and morphologically similar species that are also phylogenetically related coexist in the same environment, interspecific competition is likely to arise (Begon et al. 1988; Hunter and Caro 2008). One common outcome of such competition is habitat segregation (Cruz et al. 2018). It has been found that dominant species, larger in size, exclude subordinate species from preferred areas through interference competition (Steinmetz et al. 2013). Consequently, smaller or subordinate species may be displaced to suboptimal habitats, which often have reduced resource availability or great anthropogenic presence (Tannerfeldt et al. 2002). Therefore, competition over scarce resources, such as water, can intensify intraguild competition.

In this study, we analyzed five years of monitoring on the use of artificial water troughs by the felid species in the CBR. We hypothesized that felids would use water troughs with similar frequency regardless of their spatial arrangement. Also, we hypothesized that medium-sized felids (ocelot, jaguarundi, and margay) would exhibit lower temporal overlap and reduced visitation rates compared to large-sized felids (jaguar and puma), as a strategy to avoid intraguild predation (De Oliveira and Pereira 2014). In specific, we expected smaller temporal overlap between pairs of felids with the highest morphological similarity (puma-jaguar and puma-ocelot) than the more morphologically distinct jaguar and ocelot (Herrera et al. 2018). Our main objective was to evaluate the spatial and temporal variation in the visitation rates and the degree of temporal activity overlap among felid species to infer patterns of interspecific avoidance.

Materials and methods

Study area. The study was conducted at the CBR located in the municipality of Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico (18°40’07.7”N, 89°12’34.3”W). The area of the CBR is 7,289.08 km2 of continuous protected tropical forest (Morales and Magaña 2001; Figure 1). The region is characterized by a diversity of plant associations, including medium sub-perennial medium-height forests, sub-perennial thorny short-height forests, short-height flooded forests, semi-deciduous medium-height forests, tular, and secondary vegetation (INEGI 2021; Figure 1). The climate is tropical, warm, humid, and warm sub-humid with rainfall in summer (García and CONABIO, 2008). The average annual temperature ranges between 24 and 28 °C (Vester et al. 2007), the maximum temperature is 36 °C during May and June (Hernández et al. 2018), but in the last years temperatures above 40 °C have been reached (Comisión Nacional del Agua; smn.conagua.gob.mx). During January occurs the minimum temperature averages 18 °C (Hernández et al. 2018). Average annual precipitation is highly variable, ranging from 900 mm to 1,400 mm. The dry season is from November to May, and the rainy season is from June to October (García and CONABIO 2008; Mardero et al. 2012; CONANP 2023).

Data collection. From 2019 to 2023, we set up eight artificial water trough stations along the primary access route of the CBR, separated by a minimum distance of 2 km (Contreras-Moreno et al. 2024), at an average distance of 100 m from the highway. The troughs were arranged in a latitudinal sequence reflecting a climatic gradient (Figure 1). Troughs located at higher latitudes have higher average annual temperatures and less precipitation than those located at lower latitudes; from northern to southern troughs, annual mean temperatures, calculated with interpolated data from climatic stations, are 25.3° C and 24.7° C; and annual precipitation is 1,156 mm and 1,204 mm in the same troughs (Cuervo-Robayo et al. 2014). The water troughs were made from plastic (Rotoplas®) with a capacity of 300 L and were supplied with water every two weeks. A simple camera-trapping station was attached to each artificial water trough. Eight Bushnell HD119876c (Trophy Cam; Outdoor Operations LLC. Los Angeles, USA), Browning Strike force 850 (Strike force; Browning Trail Cameras, Alabama, USA), or Cuddeback IR-20 (Cuddeback IR; Non-Typical Inc., Wisconsin, USA) cameras were used, which were attached to trees at approximately 50 cm above the ground, facing the troughs at approximately five meters to allow a complete view around it (Contreras-Moreno et al. 2024). The cameras were programmed to take three consecutive photos with a five-second delay period and remained active for 24 hours. Cameras worked during the first six months of each year, corresponding to the dry season. Revisions were conducted every two months to change batteries and replace camera memory cards. The records obtained were stored in a database using the R package of the R Studio program, version 2024.04.2+764, and a database was constructed with these data using the camtrapR interface in RStudio software 12.0 (Niedballa et al. 2020).

Data analysis. To evaluate the use of artificial water troughs per year, the visitation rate (VR) was calculated for each of the species of felids as VR=N/SE*100 trap-days. Where: N = number of independent records, SE = sampling effort (number of days the cameras were in operation), and 100 trap-days as a standard unit (Mandujano and Hernández 2019). A 1-hr interval was used to account for independent records (Briones-Salas et al. 2016). A nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine whether there were differences in the visitation rates between species during sampling years and between artificial water deposits. A Mann-Whitney post hoc test was then used to determine which cases differed.

Felid activity at the drinking troughs was described with kernel density curves (Ridout and Linkie 2009) using the times stamped on the photographs. Subsequently, the level of overlap (Δ) between species pairs and 95% confidence intervals were examined using a Bootstrap with 1,000 iterations. We compared the statistical differences between the hours of greatest activity with a Kernel density analysis. Analyses were done with packages activity (Rowcliffe 2016) and overlap (Meredith and Ridout 2014) in R 3.4.0 (R Core Team 2017).

Results

A total sampling effort of 5,465 trap-days included 588 grouped records of four felid species at artificial water troughs. Jaguar, puma, ocelot, and margay were recorded (Figure 2), whereas no records of jaguarundi were obtained. The ocelot showed the highest visitation rate throughout the five years of monitoring (4.57 records/100 trap-days), followed by the puma (3.84 records/100 trap-days) and the jaguar (2.18 records/100 trap-days). The margay was rarely observed (0.16 records/100 trap-days) (Table 1).

The visitation rate was variable over the years. Considering all the felid species, the visitation rate was higher in 2023 (VR = 20.10), 2022 (VR = 17.96), and 2019 (VR = 12.25). In 2021, felid species exhibited a lower rate (VR = 3.96). The visitation rate of jaguars decreased between 2019 and 2020, whereas in 2021 it was not detected, and the visitation rate in 2023 was similar to 2019. Puma and ocelot also experienced a reduction in visitation rates between 2019 and 2021, but their rates increased in 2022 and 2023 (Table 1).

The jaguar exhibited significantly variable records at stations between km 32 and km 42; in contrast, the puma showed near-homogeneous records across all eight stations, and the ocelot displayed a similar trend but at stations km 36 and km 32. We found a weak significant difference between felid visitation rates at artificial water troughs (K-W test; H = 6.06, p = 0.047); only the ocelot had differences among water troughs (U = 11.5; p = 0.035), but we did not find differences among years (K-W test; H = 6.24, p = 0.180).

Felids were detected visiting the drinking troughs mainly during nocturnal hours.

Ocelots were observed mainly between 18:00-06:00 h, with a principal peak before midnight.

Jaguars and pumas exhibited a most extended activity throughout the day, with a peak around 19:00 hr and another at 06:00 hr (Figure 3).

Lastly, a high degree of use overlap was observed in felids at the artificial water trough stations over the five-year study period, with more than 70% of the recorded observations, indicating the presence of multiple species of felids at the same location. The highest overlap was observed between jaguar and puma (Δ = 0.89; 95% CI = 0.79-0.93), followed by puma and ocelot (Δ = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.65-0.80), and jaguar and ocelot (Δ = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.62 to 0.76) (Figure 3).

Discussion

This study showed that felid species frequently used artificial water troughs in the CBR. Overall, we found that different felid species did not visit all water troughs with equal frequency, and no consistent pattern of use was observed among the species. For instance, jaguars were recorded more frequently at northern water troughs than pumas and ocelots. In contrast, margays were uncommon, and jaguarundis were not recorded. Compared to visitation rates at natural water bodies, our results show higher visitation rates for both jaguars and ocelots (2.18 and 4.57 grouped records/100 camera-trap days, respectively) than those reported in surrounding areas (1.31 and 2.3 grouped records/100 camera-trap days, respectively; Gaitán et al. 2021; Sandoval-Serés et al. 2022). Therefore, our results reveal the importance of water troughs as mitigation management to reduce hydric stress in felid species.

The highest visitation rate to water troughs was recorded for the ocelot, with the highest activity at night. It has been documented that ocelots are active throughout the day, with an increased activity during nocturnal hours (Sunquist 1991; Maffei et al. 2005; Di Bitetti et al. 2006). However, in certain localities, ocelot activity patterns are strongly influenced by the behavior of their prey (Murray and Gadner 1997; De Villa et al. 2002).

Pumas had the second-highest visitation rate at water troughs, followed by jaguars. Both species were active throughout the day but exhibited a bimodal activity pattern, with peaks at dawn and dusk. The timing of the puma visits to the water troughs was consistent with activity patterns recorded by camera traps in forested areas of the Yucatan Peninsula (Ávila-Nájera et al. 2018b; Argudín‐Violante et al. 2023). Estrada (2008) and Moreira et al. (2009) also recorded a crepuscular and nocturnal activity pattern for puma in both the CBR and in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Also, the activity pattern observed for jaguars in our study was similar to that found in the Maya Forest, with two peaks but higher activity after 20:00 hr (Estrada 2008). These findings align with our results, indicating that both pumas and jaguars exhibited crepuscular and nocturnal activity around water troughs. This suggests that these large-sized felids did not alter their temporal activity in response to the artificial water troughs but rather incorporated their use into their existing behavioral patterns.

The margay had the lowest visitation rate among the felid species, a result that may be attributed to several non-exclusive factors. First, the margay is primarily an arboreal species that prefers to hunt in the canopy and avoid unfavorable encounters with potential competitors (De Oliveira and Pereira 2014; De Oliveira et al. 2015). Second, it prefers habitats with dense shrubs and tree cover and is rarely found deep in areas with closed canopy, although it has also been recorded in open environments with some degree of disturbance (Paviolo et al. 2015). Third, the presence of competitors, since it has been found that margay densities increase in the absence of ocelots (Prugh et al. 2009; Jachowski et al. 2020), suggesting that ocelots may directly or indirectly suppress margay presence (Macdonald and Loveridge 2010). These factors provide explanations for the low number of observations of the margay at water troughs, as well as their comparatively low records at natural water sources compared to those of other felids (e.g., in rock pools and tree holes; Delgado-Martínez et al. 2023).

The overlap in activity patterns at the artificial water troughs varied among the pair of felids studied. Contrary to expectations of a smaller temporal overlap between pairs of felids with the highest morphological similarity (puma-jaguar and puma-ocelot) than the more morphologically distinct (jaguar and ocelot; Herrera et al. 2018), we found that jaguars and pumas exhibited high overlap in their activity patterns (Δ = 0.89). This suggests that both species shared similar temporal use of artificial water troughs, a result that contrasts with expectations and with previous findings in forested areas of Calakmul (Δ = 0.75; Argudín-Violante et al. 2023). Whereas high temporal overlap has also been observed in community-managed conservation areas in southern Mexico (Galindo-Aguilar et al. 2022), lower overlaps (Δ = 51-75) have been reported in the northeastern part of the Yucatan peninsula (Ávila-Nájera et al. 2016). The necessity of water as a limiting resource likely contributes to the increased temporal overlap observed in this study.

The ocelots appear to be slightly influenced by the presence of large-sized species of felids (Macdonald and Loveridge 2010; Santos et al. 2019). However, the lowest overlap was observed between the jaguars and ocelots (Δ = 0.72). Similarly, the temporal overlap between ocelots and pumas at water troughs was moderate (Δ = 0.76). This discrepancy may be attributed to differences in peak activity times, which have been interpreted as a strategy by ocelots to avoid intraguild predation by jaguars (Fedriani et al. 2000; Lira-Torres and Briones-Salas 2012). Our overlap estimate between jaguar and ocelot was similar to observations at waterholes in Guatemala (Δ = 0.65-0.70), where direct evidence of jaguar predation on ocelots has been recorded (Perera-Romero et al. 2021). It is plausible that our observed temporal overlap of ocelot with larger felids is a strategy to avoid encounters and possible predation.

The study of the mechanisms of coexistence among large-sized felids has primarily focused on three dimensions: diet, spacial use, and temporal activity (Ávila-Nájera et al. 2016). Among these, temporal segregation is generally considered less influential than spatial or trophic segregation in explaining coexistence (Santos et al. 2019; Argudín-Violante et al. 2023). This trend can be attributed to species-specific constraints imposed by biological rhythms and the physiological and ecological costs associated with shifting from one circadian cycle to another (Kronfeld-Schor and Dayan 2003). Factors such as density, seasonality, prey type, and prey density play a significant role in mediating the predator interaction and influence the degree of tolerance for temporal overlap (Ávila-Nájera et al. 2016). Predators often exhibit a higher temporal overlap and spatial association with key prey species than with competitors. In such circumstances, the coexistence of predator species may be influenced by the selection of prey with varying activity patterns (Hernández-Sánchez and Santos-Moreno 2020). The absence of strong segregation has been observed previously (Santos et al. 2019), but fine-scale segregation has been proposed as a spatiotemporal strategy facilitating coexistence between these felids (Galindo-Aguilar et al. 2022).

The use of both natural and artificial water sources by mammals highlights the value of water troughs as a management strategy in arid climates and tropical regions with pronounced seasonality, such as Calakmul (Contreras-Moreno et al. 2024; Sánchez-Pinzón et al. 2024). In general, several mammal species have shown a positive correlation between their occupancy and the presence of permanent water sources (Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2009; O’Farrill et al. 2014; Rich et al. 2016). Although occupancy was not evaluated because small sample size, we found high visitation use by part of felids compared to natural water sources (Gaitán et al. 2021; Sandoval-Serés et al. 2022). The importance of water is critical, as prolonged periods of low precipitation can lead to dehydration-related mortality in large-sized species such as jaguars, tapirs (Tapirus bairdii), and white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) (Gandiwa et al. 2016). Thus, the use of artificial water troughs represents a viable approach to ensuring water availability during the dry season for predators and other wildlife (Mandujano and Hernández 2019), while addressing the growing challenge of water scarcity (Epaphras et al. 2008). Accordingly, the installation of artificial water troughs emerges as a valuable strategy for mitigating the adverse effects of droughts on wildlife populations.

The high number of visits to artificial troughs by felid species in 2019, compared to the subsequent two-year period, can be attributed to the extreme drought that occurred in that year. This drought caused the widespread desiccation of natural water bodies and led to several critical incidents, including mortality events of tapirs due to dehydration, which was classified as an “environmental crisis” in the region (Contreras-Moreno 2020). The situation changed in 2020, following two major climatic events that replenished natural water bodies. A concurred decrease in the number of species of felids visiting artificial water troughs was observed, mirroring similar patterns recorded for ungulate species such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and brockets (Mazama temama and Mazama pandora), and tapirs during the same period in the Selva Maya (Contreras-Moreno et al. 2024). These findings underscore the functional importance of artificial water sources in supporting wildlife during the dry season.

Our study demonstrated that felid species present in the CBR actively visited artificial water troughs. These findings are aligned with previous reports of other wildlife species using such water reservoirs, particularly during periods of extreme droughts. Although the implementation of artificial water provision has been widely recognized as a valuable management strategy, several concerns have been proposed. These include pervasive changes in abundances and diversity, risk of intoxication due to biological and non-natural contaminants, modifications in predator-prey dynamics, and the facilitation of disease transmission (Rosenstock et al. 1999; Simpson et al. 2011). However, many of these potential negative impacts are speculative (Simpson et al. 2011); others, such as changes in diversity and abundance, have not been empirically supported (Kluever et al. 2016).

The impact of climate change, particularly the severe shortage of natural water supplies, as the aguadas in the region, poses a significant threat to wildlife. Managing practices, such as the installation of artificial water troughs, must be implemented on a broader scale to effectively address this challenge. Further research is needed to assess variations in wildlife demand for artificial water sources across different ecosystems, as well as to evaluate any potential negative effects associated with their use in Neotropical forests.

Acknowledgments

To the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project 00092169: “Strengthening the management of the Protected Areas System to improve the conservation of species at risk and their habitats”, implemented by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). To the colleagues of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, who were always willing to support the monitoring project. To the World Wildlife Fund Inc (WWF-Mexico) for the funding granted through the Monitoring of Water Bodies in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve program, within the framework of the project “Saving the jaguar: ambassador of America”. MCL acknowledges Secretaría de Investigación y Posgrado, Instituto Politécnico Nacional.

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Associated editor: Eduardo Mendoza Ramírez

Submitted: March 19, 2025; Reviewed: March 20, 2025

Accepted: May 16, 2025; Published on line: May 29, 2025

Figure 1. Location of the artificial water trough stations in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR) in southeastern Mexico.

Table 1. Frequency of independent records (FIR) and visitation rate (VR) of felid species during five sampling periods (2019-2023) in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR) in southeastern Mexico.

	2019 FIR (VR)		2020 FIR (VR)		2021 FIR (VR)		2022 FIR (VR)		2023 FIR (VR)		Total in five years FIR (VR)
Jaguar	85	3.00	18	1.32	0	0.00	4	1.07	12	2.87	119	2.18
Puma	115	4.06	24	1.77	9	1.87	34	9.11	28	6.67	210	3.84
Ocelot	146	5.15	23	1.69	10	2.08	29	7.77	42	10.05	250	4.57
Margay	1	0.03	6	0.04	0	0.00	0	0.00	2	0.48	9	0.16

Figure 3. Temporal overlaps among felid species visiting artificial water troughs in the in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. a) Ocelot and jaguar, b) ocelot and puma, and c) jaguar and puma.