Research overview: natural prey depletion and jaguar-puma livestock depredation

This overview synthesises evidence linking the depletion of natural prey, peccaries, deer, capybara, guanaco, to increased jaguar and puma depredation on livestock across the Americas. It reviews studies showing that where subsistence and commercial hunting reduce wild prey, big cats turn more readily to cattle and small stock, intensifying conflict. The literature argues that protecting and restoring prey populations is an underused conflict-mitigation lever that addresses an ecological root cause. It also examines how prey availability interacts with husbandry and habitat. The survey frames prey conservation as a shared interest of ranchers and conservationists, since healthy wild-prey bases can lower depredation pressure on domestic herds.