Gaspar Jaguar: Movement Metrics and Habitat Use During a 2,122-km Dispersal

5,050 GPS locations recorded at 60-minute intervals track a 92-kg male jaguar's 2,122-km dispersal over 381 days in Brazil. The data, supporting a 2026 study in Ecology, includes derived movement metrics, land cover classifications, and time spent in protected areas, with raw coordinates available upon request. It was collected via a GPS-Iridium collar from November 2024 to November 2025.

Use Cases

• Classifying animal movement phases based on net squared displacement and step length metrics.
• Analyzing habitat selection by comparing time spent in natural versus human-modified land cover classes.
• Assessing the role of terrestrial protected areas as corridors or barriers during long-distance dispersal.
• Calculating summary statistics like mean speed and cumulative distance for different behavioral phases.

Strengths

• Includes 5,050 GPS fixes recorded at a consistent 60-minute interval.
• Movement is classified into two distinct behavioral phases (pre-dispersal and dispersal) using a published NSD method.
• Data links movement to specific land cover classes from the MapBiomas classification system.
• Complete annotated R scripts are provided to reproduce all analyses and figures.

Limitations

• Raw GPS coordinates are removed due to species sensitivity, limiting precise spatial analysis without a data request.
• Row count for the primary movement metrics file is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset describes a single individual (n=1), limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Jon Morant Etxebarria, associated with the Jaguar Conservation Fund ([email protected]).

Collection Method

GPS telemetry from a collar fitted to a single jaguar, with post-processing to derive movement metrics.

Time Range

November 2024 to November 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-15 10:48:40; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Brazil, spanning the Araguaia River region and the Amazon–Cerrado boundary.