Research overview: prey depletion and defaunation in jaguar landscapes

Even where forest remains standing, jaguars can decline if their prey is hunted out, a phenomenon known as empty forest or defaunation that interacts with habitat and climate change. This overview surveys how unsustainable hunting of peccary, deer, and other prey reduces jaguar carrying capacity, and how prey loss compounds the effects of fragmentation and climate stress. It reviews methods for estimating prey depletion and its spatial overlap with jaguar range. The synthesis frames prey availability as a habitat-quality dimension invisible on land-cover maps, explaining why jaguar conservation considers hunting pressure alongside deforestation and climate, and why protecting forest cover alone does not guarantee a functioning jaguar population.