Effects of forest composition on trophic relationships among mast production and mammals in central hardwood forest

Gillen, C.; Hellgren, Eric C.

doi:10.1644/12-mamm-a-138.1

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Therefore, hardwood stand use is consistent with the hypothesis that coyote diet and distribution is associated with prey abundance (Windberg and Mitchell , Mills and Knowlton 1991, Patterson and Messier , Wilson et al ), open‐canopy forest, edge habitats, and landscapes devoid of larger canids (Person and Hirth , Moorcroft et al , Kays et al ). Gillen and Hellgren () analyzed a subset of our camera locations ( n = 30) and found that coyote occurrence was negatively related to the percent basal area of a forest stand composed of hard‐mast bearing trees (e.g., Quercus spp., Carya spp. ), suggesting that the type of hardwood forest may be important to coyote occupancy patterns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal structure of a mesocarnivore guild in midwestern north America

et al. 2015

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Carnivore guilds play a vital role in ecological communities by cascading trophic effects, energy and nutrient transfer, and stabilizing or destabilizing food webs. Consequently, the structure of carnivore guilds can be critical to ecosystem patterns. Body size is a crucial influence on intraguild interactions, because it affects access to prey resources, effectiveness in scramble competition, and vulnerability to intraguild predation. Coyotes (Canis latrans), bobcats (Lynx rufus), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), raccoons (Procyon lotor), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) occur sympatrically throughout much of North America and overlap in resource use, indicating potential for interspecific interactions. Although much is known about the autecology of the individual species separately, little is known about factors that facilitate coexistence and how interactions within this guild influence distribution, habitat use, and temporal activity of the smaller carnivores. To assess how habitat autecology and interspecific interactions affect the structure of this widespread carnivore guild, we conducted a large‐scale, non‐invasive carnivore survey using an occupancy modeling framework. We deployed remote cameras during 3‐week surveys to detect carnivores at 1,118 camera locations in 357 2.6‐km2 sections (3–4 cameras/section composing a cluster) in the 16 southernmost counties of Illinois (16,058 km2) during January–April, 2008–2010. We characterized microhabitat at each camera location and landscape‐level habitat features for each camera cluster. In a multistage approach, we used information‐theoretic methods to evaluate competing models for detection, species‐specific habitat occupancy, multispecies co‐occupancy, and multiseason (colonization and extinction) occupancy dynamics. We developed occupancy models for each species to represent hypothesized effects of anthropogenic features, prey availability, landscape complexity, and vegetative land cover. We quantified temporal activity patterns of each carnivore species based on their frequency of appearance in photographs. Further, we assessed whether smaller carnivores shifted their diel activity patterns in response to the presence of potential competitors. Of the 102,711 photographs of endothermic animals, we recorded photographs of bobcats (n = 412 photographs), coyotes (n = 1,397), gray foxes (n = 546), raccoons (n = 40,029), red foxes (n = 149), and striped skunks (n = 2,467). Bobcats were active primarily during crepuscular periods, and their activity was reduced with precipitation and higher temperatures. The probability of detecting bobcats decreased after a bobcat photograph was recorded, suggesting avoidance of remote cameras after the first encounter. Across southern Illinois, bobcat occupancy at the camera‐location and camera‐cluster scale (ψtrueˆlocal = 0.24 ± 0.04, camera cluster ψtrueˆcluster = 0.75 ± 0.06) was negatively influenced by anthropogenic features and infrastructure. Bobcats had high rates of coloni...

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