Habitat use by carnivores at different spatial scales in a plantation forest landscape in Patagonia, Argentina

Mesocarnivores respond to fine-grain habitat structure in a mosaic landscape comprised by commercial forest plantations in southern Chile

“…For example, the kodkod cat, considered to be a rare species in coastal fragmented temperate forests (Acosta-Jamett and Simonetti, 2004), was the second most recorded species across our camera sites (w overall = 0.47), agreeing with estimates from Gálvez et al (2013) in temperate Andean forest. Another commonly recorded species in our study area, culpeo fox (w overall = 0.54) has been described to occur frequently in mosaic landscapes containing humancreated habitats given its flexible habitat preferences (AcostaJamett and Simonetti, 2004;Lantschner et al, 2012). On the other hand, Darwin's fox, a low-density and elusive species in temperate forests (Farias et al, 2014), was an infrequently recorded species in Caramávida (w overall = 0.24).…”

“…In contrast, carnivore assemblages of South American temperate ecosystems, which contain several elusive species, remain poorly studied (e.g., Lantschner et al, 2012;Zuñiga et al, 2009). In Caramávida, a camera-trapping effort ca.…”

“…Previous studies have documented culpeo fox responding positively (Acosta-Jamett and Simonetti, 2004) or negatively (Lantschner et al, 2012) to exotic plantations. However, this response depends on the availability of native understory present within monocultures .…”

Native forest replacement by exotic plantations triggers changes in prey selection of mesocarnivores

“…Carnivores can respond positively, or negatively, to plantations depending on their ecological requirements and management prescriptions within these anthropic habitats (Acosta-Jamett and Simonetti, 2004;Di Bitetti et al, 2006;Pita et al, 2009;Mazzolli, 2010;Lantschner et al, 2012;Simonetti et al, 2013;Coelho et al, 2014). The decline in carnivore populations arising from the replacement, or loss, of natural habitats may result in cascading effects affecting the biodiversity at lower trophic levels (Jaksic et al, 1992, Thompson and Gese, 2007, Byrom et al, 2014Ripple et al, 2014).…”

Forest landscape ecology and global change: an introduction

“…In Brazil, for example, the study of forest landscape ecology has grown rapidly in recent years, mainly within the fields of conservation biology (Lantschner et al 2012, Tabarelli et al 2004, Zanella et al 2012, landscape dynamics (Freitas et al 2010, Laurance et al 1998, Lira et al 2012, and forest management (Amaral et al 2009, Brockerhoff et al 2013). …”