Interspecific interactions between wild felids vary across scales and levels of urbanization

Abstract

Ongoing global landscape change resulting from urbanization is increasingly linked to changes in species distributions and community interactions. However, relatively little is known about how urbanization influences competitive interactions among mammalian carnivores, particularly related to wild felids. We evaluated interspecific interactions between medium‐ and large‐sized carnivores across a gradient of urbanization and multiple scales. Specifically, we investigated spatial and temporal interactions of bobcats and pumas by evaluating circadian activity patterns, broad‐scale seasonal interactions, and fine‐scale daily interactions in wildland–urban interface (WUI), exurban residential development, and wildland habitats. Across levels of urbanization, interspecific interactions were evaluated using two‐species and single‐species occupancy models with data from motion‐activated cameras. As predicted, urbanization increased the opportunity for interspecific interactions between wild felids. Although pumas did not exclude bobcats from areas at broad spatial or temporal scales, bobcats responded behaviorally to the presence of pumas at finer scales, but patterns varied across levels of urbanization. In wildland habitat, bobcats avoided using areas for short temporal periods after a puma visited an area. In contrast, bobcats did not appear to avoid areas that pumas recently visited in landscapes influenced by urbanization (exurban development and WUI habitat). In addition, overlap in circadian activity patterns between bobcats and pumas increased in exurban development compared to wildland habitat. Across study areas, bobcats used sites less frequently as the number of puma photographs increased at a site. Overall, bobcats appear to shape their behavior at fine spatial and temporal scales to reduce encounters with pumas, but residential development can potentially alter these strategies and increase interaction opportunities. We explore three hypotheses to explain our results of how urbanization affected interspecific interactions that consider activity patterns, landscape configuration, and animal scent marking. Altered competitive interactions between animals in urbanized landscapes could potentially increase aggressive encounters and the frequency of disease transmission.

Lions and leopards coexist without spatial, temporal or demographic effects of interspecific competition

“…Global priorities and strategies for biodiversity conservation are increasingly being developed at broad scales that extend beyond single populations to encompass multiple landscapes and, in some to potential behavioural and population suppression by dominant competitors than previously thought. Emerging evidence from a broader array of geographic regions and ecosystems is offering new understanding about the diverse strategies that subordinate carnivores such as cheetahs, bobcats and now leopards use to navigate competition Lewis et al, 2015;Mills & Mills, 2017;Wilson et al, 2010). Second, multiple large carnivores may be able to coexist in the same protected areas.…”

“…The demographic consequences of these behaviours are unknown for many species (Balme, Pitman et al., ; Linnell & Strand, ). Because the responses of subordinate carnivores may vary with environmental conditions, including resource gradients (Karanth et al., ), habitat structure (Michel, Jiménez‐franco, Naef‐daenzer, & Grüebler, ) and human development (Lewis, Bailey, Vandewoude, & Crooks, ), quantifying interspecific interactions across a wide selection of landscapes is necessary to inform management, particularly for large carnivores with extensive ranges (Balme, Pitman et al., ; Di Minin et al., ). Yet ecological studies are commonly conducted at small spatial scales, typically as case studies at single sites, and rarely encompass multiple landscapes and populations (Schmitz, ).…”

Effects of urbanization on cougar foraging ecology along the wildland–urban gradient of western Washington

“…Urbanization, ranging from low‐ to high‐density residential development, continues to be a principal cause of broad‐scale landscape change and can alter animal behavior (Lewis et al. ) as well as ecological processes and community structure (Shochat et al. , McKinney , Ordeñana et al.…”

“…Conflicts with humans remain the key threat to carnivore persistence globally (Chapron et al 2003, Ripple et al 2014, and as human populations increase, it is likely that a growing number of species will come into contact with people and anthropogenically altered landscapes (Bateman and Fleming 2012). Urbanization, ranging from low-to high-density residential development, continues to be a principal cause of broad-scale landscape change and can alter animal behavior (Lewis et al 2015b) as well as ecological processes and community structure (Shochat et al 2006, McKinney 2008, Ordeñana et al 2010). Based on the findings of Kertson et al (2011a), Smith et al (2016), Moss et al (2016a), and Blecha et al (2018), we predicted that cougars foraging along a wildland-urban gradient in western Washington would increase their reliance on synanthropic prey species as a positive function of building density.…”

Puma activity patterns and temporal overlap with prey in a human‐modified landscape at Southeastern Brazil

“…settlements, roadways, presence of domestic animals and persecution) might influence carnivores activity patterns (Ngoprasert, Lynam & Gale, 2007). Pumas (Puma concolor) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) may shift their activity patterns to avoid encounters with people, leading to altered competitive interactions between the two predators (Lewis et al, 2015). Likewise, leopards may alter their temporal activity pattern in response to high human pressure within and outside protected areas (Ngoprasert et al, 2007;Carter et al, 2015).…”