Habitat fragmentation is a primary driver of wildlife loss, and establishment of biological corridors is a common strategy to mitigate this problem. A flagship example is the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC), which aims to connect protected forest areas between Mexico and Panama to allow dispersal and gene flow of forest organisms. Because forests across Central America have continued to degrade, the functioning of the MBC has been questioned, but reliable estimates of species occurrence were unavailable. Large mammals are suitable indicators of forest functioning, so we assessed their conservation status across the Isthmus of Panama, the narrowest section of the MBC. We used large-scale camera-trap surveys and hierarchical multispecies occupancy models in a Bayesian framework to estimate the occupancy of 9 medium to large mammals and developed an occupancy-weighted connectivity metric to evaluate species-specific functional connectivity. White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), jaguar (Panthera onca), giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and tapir (Tapirus bairdii) had low expected occupancy along the MBC in Panama. Puma (Puma concolor), red brocket deer (Mazama temama), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), and collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), which are more adaptable, had higher occupancy, even in areas with low forest cover near infrastructure. However, the majority of species were subject to ≥1 gap that was larger than their known dispersal distances, suggesting poor connectivity along the MBC in Panama. Based on our results, forests in Darien, Donoso-Santa Fe, and La Amistad International Park are critical for survival of large terrestrial mammals in Panama and 2 areas need restoration.

中文翻译：

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巴拿马作为大型哺乳动物洲际陆桥的有效性

栖息地破碎化是野生动物丧失的主要驱动因素，建立生物走廊是缓解这一问题的常见策略。一个典型的例子是中美洲生物走廊 (MBC)，它旨在连接墨西哥和巴拿马之间的森林保护区，以允许森林生物的扩散和基因流动。由于整个中美洲的森林持续退化，MBC 的功能受到质疑，但无法获得对物种发生的可靠估计。大型哺乳动物是森林功能的合适指标，因此我们评估了它们在巴拿马地峡（MBC 的最窄部分）的保护状况。我们在贝叶斯框架中使用大规模相机陷阱调查和分层多物种占用模型来估计 9 种中型到大型哺乳动物的占用，并开发了占用加权连接度量来评估特定物种的功能连接。白唇野猪 (Tayassu pecari)、美洲虎 (Panthera onca)、巨型食蚁兽 (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)、白尾鹿 (Odocoileus virginianus) 和貘 (Tapirus bairdii) 在巴拿马 MBC 沿线的预期入住率较低。美洲豹 (Puma concolor)、红斑鹿 (Mazama temama)、豹猫 (Leopardus pardalis) 和项圈野猪 (Pecari tajacu) 的适应性更强，即使在基础设施附近森林覆盖率低的地区也有更高的入住率。然而，大多数物种受到大于其已知扩散距离的 ≥1 间隙的影响，表明巴拿马 MBC 沿线的连通性较差。根据我们的研究结果，Darien、Donoso-Santa Fe 和 La Amistad 国际公园的森林对于巴拿马大型陆生哺乳动物的生存至关重要，有 2 个地区需要恢复。