New records of jaguar predation on sea turtles, Pacific coast, Costa Rica

Abstract

We report here new sites where jaguars Panthera onca prey upon sea turtles in Costa Rica. We conducted carcass counts (n = 228) along eight beaches located in Santa Rosa National Park NP, which makes part of Guanacaste Conservation Area, between June and August 2016. The olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea was the most common species predated by jaguars (50% carcasses), followed by the green sea turtle Chelonia mydas (30%) and the hawksbill sea turtle Eretmochelys imbricata (0.44%). The site with the most predation events (41%) was Nancite beach. Our results suggest that predation levels could be influenced by both prey availability (e.g. sea turtles) and jaguar distribution on each beach. This information will not only improve our knowledge regarding the distribution of jaguar predation across the country, but also increase our understanding about this predator-prey interaction.