Source-sink dynamics facilitate mammal recovery after unsustainable hunting in a community-managed natural protected...

Selective logging in the Amazon is often accompanied by intensive hunting, leading to dramatic declines in wildlife populations that are critical for ecosystem functioning and local food security. We combined participatory mapping, semi-structured interviews, and spatially explicit biodemographic models to examine the impacts of 85 logging camps on mammal populations in the Sucusari River basin, northeastern Peru, and to evaluate mammal recovery after logging. Interviews with Maijuna hunters documented severe declines in game and fish populations, leading to acute food insecurity. The models predicted rapid local extirpation of species such as paca (Cuniculus paca), collared peccary (Dicotyles tajacu), and red brocket deer (Mazama americana), with severe depletion of species including tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and primates. Ten years post-logging, simulations indicated significant recovery of most species driven by dispersal from source areas, highlighting the resilience of mammal populations when source-sink dynamics are maintained, and hunting pressure is reduced.