Modeling the occupancy of sympatric carnivorans in a Mediterranean ecosystem

Sarmento, Pedro; Cruz, Joana; Eira, Catarina; Fonseca, Carlos

doi:10.1007/s10344-010-0405-x

Cited by 40 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…They may provide a new and cost-effective technique for surveying terrestrial small mammals, particularly when presence data are the main requirement of the survey [54–55]. The use of camera traps to collect data on small mammals to assess prey availability for carnivores was already performed [56], but here we went a step further and included imperfect detection on prey estimates (through occupancy modeling, see “Single-species occupancy models” section) instead of using the number of captures. We considered small-sized mammals (< 1 kg; mainly small rodents and small marsupials) and small birds (< 0.2 g; mainly passerines and doves) as the main prey for margay and oncilla, and small and medium-sized mammals (< 13 kg; mainly small rodents, small marsupials, opossums, Brazilian rabbit, paca, armadillo, and porcupine) as well as small and medium-sized birds (< 0.5 g; passerines, doves, and tinamous) for ocelot [35, 57–61].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Use and Co-Occurrence Patterns of Neotropical Spotted Cats

et al. 2017

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Small felids influence ecosystem dynamics through prey and plant population changes. Although most of these species are threatened, they are accorded one of the lowest research efforts of all felids, and we lack basic information about them. Many felids occur in sympatry, where intraguild competition is frequent. Therefore, assessing the role of interspecific interactions along with the relative importance of landscape characteristics is necessary to understand how these species co-occur in space. Here, we selected three morphologically similar and closely related species of small Neotropical cats to evaluate the roles of interspecific interactions, geomorphometry, environmental, and anthropogenic landscape characteristics on their habitat use. We collected data with camera trapping and scat sampling in a large protected Atlantic forest remnant (35,000 ha). Throughout occupancy modeling we investigated whether these species occur together more or less frequently than would be expected by chance, while dealing with imperfect detection and incorporating possible habitat preferences into the models. We used occupancy as a measure of their habitat use. Although intraguild competition can be an important determinant of carnivore assemblages, in our system, we did not find evidence that one species affects the habitat use of the other. Evidence suggested that proximity to the nature reserve (a more protected area) was a more important driver of Neotropical spotted cats’ occurrence than interspecific interactions or geomorphometry and environmental landscape characteristics—even though our entire study area is under some type of protection. This suggests that small felids can be sensitive to the area protection status, emphasizing the importance of maintaining and creating reserves and other areas with elevated protection for the proper management and conservation of the group.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Use and Co-Occurrence Patterns of Neotropical Spotted Cats

et al. 2017

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“…The relative abundance index from camera-trapping data was a capture rate index computed as the number of independent captures per 15 sampling days which is similar to other proposed abundance indices based on camera traps, such as the RAI index (Balme et al, 2009;Sarmento et al, 2010). Despite the difficulty to asses true abundance, these indices resulted useful proxies in studies of response of carnivore (and other wildlife communities) to varied conservation challenges or to study habitat-species relationships (Balme et al, 2009).…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Although camera trapping is considered an adequate method for sampling relative abundance of carnivores (Balme et al, 2009;Sarmento et al, 2010), some species show low detectability rates in camera trapping studies. For example, genets, wildcats and badgers showed very low detectability rates in previous studies conducted in our study area (Virgós, own unpubl.…”

Section: Field Survey Procedures and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Mediterranean mesocarnivore communities along urban and ex-urban gradients

et al. 2015

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Urbanization causes wildlife habitat loss, fragmentation, and the replacement of specialist species by generalists and/or exotic taxa. Because mesocarnivores are particularly vulnerable to habitat modifications, the rapid expansion of urban areas and the increasing trend for ex-urban development occurring in Mediterranean ecosystems may be major drivers of change in mesocarnivore communities. We combined camera trapping and sign surveys to quantify the richness and relative abundance of a set of wild and domestic mesocarnivores. We quantified these variables controlling for the gradient of urbanism, ex-urbanism, and other environmental variables in patches of natural vegetation in the region of Madrid (central Spain), and a non-urbanized control area ~220 km south of Madrid city. Using conditional autoregressive models (CAR) and model selection procedures, we found that urbanization influenced mesocarnivore community composition but this influence was not detrimental for all the species tested. Generalist carnivores such as the red fox Vulpes vulpes were more abundant in urban and ex-urban areas. Ex-urban development creates overlapping areas between wild and domestic species (such as the domestic cat Felis catus and the wildcat Felis silvestris) but contact between wild and domestic carnivores in natural areas is unlikely. Detection of species in the control area was very low. Therefore, the impact of urbanization in causing changes in mesocarnivore communities may be less than other factors such as illegal predator culling [Current Zoology 61 (5): [793][794][795][796][797][798][799][800][801] 2015].

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“…Camera trapping has proved to be one of the most useful tools for wildlife surveys as it is non-invasive and provides information on cryptic and inconspicuous species (Harmsen et al, 2009;Sarmento et al, 2009;Surnato et al, 2013). Data obtained from camera trapping can be used to study several topics of animal ecology such as inventories (Srbek-Araujo & Chiarello, 2005;Tobler et al, 2008), site occupancy (Mackenzie & Royle, 2005;O'Connell et al, 2006;Rich et al, 2013), patterns of spatial partitioning among species (Sarmento et al, 2011;Sollmann et al, 2012), temporal interactions between species as well as activity patterns (Foster et al, 2013;Frey et al, 2017). In the last two decades, several factors contributing to Neotropical carnivore coexistence have been studied using camera trapping (Vieira & Port, 2007;Di Bitetti et al, 2010;Bianchi et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Camera traps as a tool for Carnivore conservation in a mosaic of Protected Areas in the Pantanal wetlands, Brazil

Porfírio¹,

Foster²,

Sarmento³

et al. 2018

Nat. Cons. Res.

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Although known globally for its biodiversity, only around 5% of the Brazilian Pantanal is protected. The Network for Protection and Conservation of Amolar Mountain Ridge is an informal initiative that legally protects over 2000 km 2 of the Pantanal biome. Several camera-trapping surveys were carried out at Amolar Mountain Ridge from August 2011 to September 2013 in order to increase our knowledge of the species occurrence and its ecological requirements. The aims of this study were : 1) to inventory the carnivore species occurring within this network of protected areas; 2) to describe their activity patterns and 3) to discuss threats for those species' conservation in the region. We used the Kernel density method to describe the species' activity patterns. We obtained 764 records (from 12703 camera-days) of eight carnivores, including endangered species in Brazil, such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), puma (Puma concolor), and ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), that were among the most frequently recorded by camera traps. The other species detected were the South America coati (Nasua nasua), the tayra (Eira barbara), the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) and the jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi). We provided information on activity patterns of the jaguar and puma, which exhibited cathemeral activity patterns, on the ocelot and crab-eating fox, which were mostly nocturnal, and on the Southern coati and jaguarundi, which were diurnal. Scansorial and species that occur naturally in low densities as the tayra and the crab-eating raccoon were difficult to be detected with the used camera trapping setting. However, due to the natural characteristics of the study area, camera trapping is among the most appropriate tools for providing data about carnivores and their prey. This information is essential to delineate conservation plans for Amolar Mountain Ridge.

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Modeling the occupancy of sympatric carnivorans in a Mediterranean ecosystem

Cited by 40 publications

References 38 publications

Landscape Use and Co-Occurrence Patterns of Neotropical Spotted Cats

Landscape Use and Co-Occurrence Patterns of Neotropical Spotted Cats

Changes in Mediterranean mesocarnivore communities along urban and ex-urban gradients

Camera traps as a tool for Carnivore conservation in a mosaic of Protected Areas in the Pantanal wetlands, Brazil

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