The Ecological Roles of Medium and Small Carnivores in the Terrestrial Animal Community in Liancheng National Nature Reserve, China

Abstract

It is vitally important to understand the ecological roles of medium and small carnivores in the context of the massive decline in the number of large carnivores around the world. Based on a spatial association network of terrestrial birds and mammals, this study analyzed the ecological roles of medium and small carnivores in the community in Liancheng National Nature Reserve. From October 2019 to June 2020, we obtained 3559 independent detections of 20 terrestrial birds and mammals from 112 camera traps. There are seven species that are medium and small carnivores present in the study area, including red fox (Vulpes vulpes), leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), Chinese mountain cat (Felis bieti), stone marten (Martes foina), Asian badger (Meles leucurus), Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica) and mountain weasel (Mustela altaica). By calculating the Phi coefficient of all species pairs, a spatial association network composed of twelve species was constructed. We analyzed the characterization of spatial associations by the Shannon–Wiener index and Lambda statistic. The results showed that: (1) the status of the network reflects the changes of community composition and structure after the decline in large carnivores and other species; (2) with the exception of the Chinese mountain cat and stone marten, the other five medium and small carnivores were located in the network, which played an important role in the complexity of the network and the maintenance of the community; (3) the medium and small carnivores could not take the place of the large carnivores in order to control the population of herbivores, such as Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) and Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana). The results of this study provide guidance for determining the direction and focus of conservation efforts.

Abundance and factors affecting the appearance of Siamese fireback and Red junglefowl in the lowland forest of Thailand

“…According to Su et al (2022), all of the carnivorous species mentioned have the potential to prey on grounddwelling birds, including pheasants. Khoewsree et al (2022) reported a significant spatial and temporal overlap between the RJF and SFB with Dhole in Khao Yai National Park.…”

“…In the geographical map with a scale of 1:50,000, each grid cell covers an area of 1 square kilometer. For the deployment of camera traps, one camera trap set was installed per grid cell (Su et al 2022). The camera trap positions in each grid cell were spaced more than 500 meters apart to ensure independence in capturing images (Selvan et al 2013).…”