Habitat fragmentation can promote patches of small and isolated populations, gene flow disruption between those populations, and reduction of local and total genetic variation. As a consequence, these small populations may go extinct in the long-term. The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), originally distributed from Texas to southern Brazil and northern Argentina, has been impacted by habitat fragmentation throughout much of its range. To test whether habitat fragmentation has already induced genetic differentiation in an area where this process has been documented for a larger felid (jaguars), we analyzed molecular variation in ocelots inhabiting two Atlantic Forest fragments, Morro do Diabo (MD) and Iguaçu Region (IR). Analyses using nine microsatellites revealed mean observed and expected heterozygosity of 0.68 and 0.70, respectively. The MD sampled population showed evidence of a genetic bottleneck under two mutational models (TPM = 0.03711 and SMM = 0.04883). Estimates of genetic structure (F_ST = 0.027; best fit of k = 1 with STRUCTURE) revealed no meaningful differentiation between these populations. Thus, our results indicate that the ocelot populations sampled in these fragments are still not significantly different genetically, a pattern that strongly contrasts with that previously observed in jaguars for the same comparisons. This observation is likely due to a combination of two factors: (i) larger effective population size of ocelots (relative to jaguars) in each fragment, implying a slower effect of drift-induced differentiation; and (ii) potentially some remaining permeability of the anthropogenic matrix for ocelots, as opposed to the observed lack of permeability for jaguars. The persistence of ocelot gene flow between these areas must be prioritized in long-term conservation planning on behalf of these felids.

Although agroforests are considered biodiversity-friendly systems, their capacity to support species diversity depends on local characteristics and the landscape context in which they are embedded. Therefore, we evaluated how management intensification and landscape forest cover affect bird community structure in 10 cocoa agroforests distributed across southern Bahia, Brazil. In each agroforest, we quantified management intensity based on four agricultural practices (weed control, fertilization, cocoa tree pruning, and number of cocoa trees) typically adopted by farmers. In addition, we estimated the amount of Atlantic Forest surrounding each agroforest within a 113-ha landscape. Using point counts, we sampled richness, abundance, and species composition for all birds, and separately for forest and non-forest species. In our study, we recorded 8,945 birds representing 139 species across 10 agroforests, including 73 forest species and 66 non-forest species. Our GLM models revealed that only management intensification negatively affected the richness and abundance of forest birds, while having the opposite effect on the abundance of non-forest birds. We also found that similarity in forest species composition decreased between agroforests with differing levels of management intensity. Moreover, differences in forest cover between agroforests reduced species composition similarity across all bird groups. Our findings revealed that less intensified agroforests may be more effective in maintaining bird diversity, mainly of forest species, possibly due to more favorable conditions and greater resource availability. Additionally, we detected that landscape forest cover influences species composition within agroforests. Thus, forest restoration may serve as a valuable strategy for bird conservation in these agricultural landscapes.