Patterns of spatial distribution and diel activity in carnivore guilds (Carnivora)

Title:

Patterns of spatial distribution and diel activity in carnivore guilds (Carnivora)

Creator:

Tsunoda, Hiroshi, Peeva, Stanislava, Raichev, Evgeniy, Kronawetter, Thomas, Kirilov, Krasimir B., Georgiev, Dian, and Kaneko, Yayoi

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:2116e1a1-c477-4991-ab37-ddf78466a468
uuid:2116e1a1-c477-4991-ab37-ddf78466a468
doi:10.25225/jvb.22018

Subject:

competition, daily activities, intraguild, landscape modifications, and niche partitioning

Type:

model:article and TEXT

Format:

počítač and online zdroj

Description:

In mammalian carnivore guilds (order Carnivora), spatiotemporal partitions play a major role in reducing competitive confrontations and facilitating successful sympatry. Using camera-trapping techniques, the present study aimed to elucidate patterns of spatial distribution and diel activities among medium- and large-sized carnivore species across central Bulgaria. We obtained 3,364 images of nine focal carnivores from 13,988 camera-trapping days between 2015 and 2020. Our findings indicated that the spatial distribution of the focal carnivore guilds varied with changes in altitudinal gradient, ruggedness, and forest-agricultural landscape changes. Specifically, the two largest species, the grey wolf (Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758) and the brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758), were found only in the Balkan Mountains, whereas the largest mesocarnivore, the golden jackal (Canis aureus Linnaeus, 1758), was mainly distributed agricultural lowlands. The European wildcat (Felis sylvestris Schreber, 1777) was found in forests inside protected areas, and other mesocarnivores were distributed at intermediate levels between wooded-mountains and agricultural lowlands. Brown bear, golden jackal, and domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris Linnaeus, 1758) showed cathemeral, crepuscular, and diurnal activity, respectively, whereas the remaining six carnivores showed nocturnal activity in synchrony with their main prey. Our findings indicated that anthropogenic landscape modifications and potential interspecific competition resulted in patterns of spatial distribution and temporal activity in this carnivore guild.

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

1-11

Source:

Journal of Vertebrate Biology | 2022 Volume:71 | Number:1

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false