Landscape connectivity for an endangered carnivore: habitat conservation and road mitigation for ocelots in the US

Context: Maintaining landscape connectivity for wildlife has become a conservation priority in response to increasing land development and road networks. Roads affect many wildlife populations worldwide, with the distribution and density of roads having negative impacts on gene flow and landscape connectivity. Objectives: We aimed to identify areas along roadways that promote movement in a fragmented landscape. Our objective was to gain a deeper understanding of drivers of connectivity in a patchwork landscape of human uses. Methods: We applied a spatial absorbing Markov chain (SAMC) framework to test hypotheses about landscape connectivity for a federally endangered carnivore, the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis). We modeled landscape connectivity for ocelots based on spatio-temporal trends in habitat use, which we derived using telemetry dataset collected 1982–2017. We compared three increasingly restrictive resistance surfaces to predict trends in landscape connectivity. Results: Ocelot avoidance of high-traffic roads (> 5000 cars/day) largely influenced patterns of predicted connectivity. We simulated connectivity between habitat patches and identified highly connected areas of conservation concern due to proximity to high-traffic roads. Connectivity was greatly influenced by ocelot habitat use rather than resistance scenarios. Further, we found no evidence of connectivity between populations of ocelots, indicating isolation within a fragmented landscape. Conclusion: Our spatially-explicit results describing landscape connectivity with respect to roads provides critical information needed for strategic placement of wildlife crossing structures. Wildlife crossing structures for resident ocelots should be placed in areas of relatively high conductance near roads with well-connected habitat on both sides of the road. We describe an approach that leverages long-term habitat use data for examining connectivity and improving landscape permeability.