Understanding intra-guild dynamics: Do presence of red foxes and yellow-throated martens shape ecology of leopard cats in the lesser Himalayas?

Abstract

Small sympatric carnivores may engage in strong competition, demanding the establishment of coexistence strategies that separate competitors along geographical, temporal, and nutritional axes to minimize ecological overlaps. Using camera trap data collected over six months, we computed the degree of temporal and spatial co-occurrence/competition of leopard cats conditional on yellow-throated martens and red foxes. Our best N-mixture model resulted in β = 2.35 individuals of red fox with a detection probability of 0.023 per camera station, which indicated the highest abundance compared to those of leopard cats (β = 0.53; det p = 0.022) and yellow-throated martens (β = 1.06; det p= 0.043). Our top SECR model of a half-normal detection function estimated 18.2 individuals/100 km 2 , for leopard cats whereas for red foxes the density was 23.9 individuals/100 km 2 . The density of yellow-throated marten was estimated to be 44 individuals/100 km 2 using camera trap distance sampling. Intercept only models' positive pairwise estimates indicate that leopard cats were more likely to exist in areas occupied by red fox (1.929 ± 0.361). In contrast, the occupancy estimates of yellow-throated marten (0.846 ± 0.396) were considerably lower. The two nocturnal study species (leopard cat and red fox) produced the highest values of Pianka's index for spatial niche overlap, calculated to be 0.829. In this research, red foxes dominated the small predator guild we were observing, and their presence or absence affected the distribution of leopard cats.Among terrestrial animals, carnivores are the most threatened groups (Karanth et al., 2009). Smaller carnivores may be helpful indicator species in preserving ecosystems since their specialization and resource selectivity are typically stronger than those of large carnivores. Given that these carnivores compete on numerous fronts when there are significant nutritional overlaps across species and intermediate disparities in body size, interspecific killing occurs more often (Donadio & Buskirk, 2006). Due to this threat, they must compromise (Laundre et al., 2010) to survive in a challenging environment and avoid dominant predators (Bischof et al., 2014). Additionally, because ecological niches overlap, interspecific competition is considered one of the most significant mechanisms limiting the number of species that may exist within an assemblage (Di Bitetti et al., 2010). Hence, competitive interactions can shape patterns of community assemblages, determine how niches are divided, and support the development of coexistence strategies among competing species (Chiang et al., 2012;Cristescu et al., 2013). Interspecific competition determines sympatric species' demographic and ecological traits with effects of utilization and interference (Grassel et al., 2015).Knowledge of South Asian wild cats is limited due to their elusive behavior (Nowell & Jackson, 1996.). The leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) is a small, widely distributed species in Asia that inhabits a broad range of natural ha...