Vertebrates visiting natural waterholes in a tropical seasonal habitat in central México

López-Téllez, Concepción; Pérez-Irineo, Gabriela; Mandujano, Salvador; Ramírez-Carmona, Geovanny; Hernández-Gómez, Carlos A.; Flores-Ramírez, Diana E.

doi:10.12933/therya_notes-21-41

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…Camera traps were used to monitor the use of ten artificial water troughs by wildlife, as this method has been used extensively in similar studies across the world [ 7 , 13 , 45 , 46 ]. The monitored water troughs were located at the forest core ( n = 3), where mouflon density is usually low, and the higher density periphery zone ( n = 7) ( Figure 1 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial Water Troughs Use by the Mountain Ungulate Ovis gmelini ophion (Cyprus Mouflon) at Pafos Forest

Eliades

Astaras²,

Messios

et al. 2022

Animals

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For large herbivores inhabiting arid/semi-arid environments, water can be a limiting resource affecting their distribution and abundance for periods when water requirements are not met via forage. The Cyprus mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion) is such a species, which is endemic to the mountain habitats of Cyprus. Recognizing water scarcity to be a major pressure to the mouflon, and with global warming projected to intensify hot and dry periods in the region, the Game and Fauna Service has been maintaining a network of locally designed watering troughs in Pafos Forest—the mouflon’s stronghold—since 1997. This study describes the mouflon’s use of the water troughs and examines whether visitation rates differed at the daily or weekly scale in response to environmental, climatic or anthropogenic parameters. Using camera traps, ten troughs were monitored from September 2017 to March 2018 (1,065 days; range 29–164 days per trough). Mouflon were detected at seven troughs (mean herd size 1.5 ± 1.2) during 373 independent detections (≥30 min interval between photographs), with visits peaking during late morning and midday hours. Generalized mixed-effect models showed mouflon visiting water troughs more frequently during hotter days, regardless of recent precipitation. Visits were also more frequent at water troughs located close to tar roads. Moreover, there was no evidence of mouflon avoiding water troughs used by predators (red foxes, feral dogs) at either daily or weekly scale, or during hunting days. The study supports the value of artificial water troughs for mediating, partially at least, the effects of climate change on mountain ungulates such as the Cyprus mouflon. Additional studies are proposed that will examine both mouflon drinking patterns across all seasons and ways of improving the effectiveness of the current water trough grid.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial Water Troughs Use by the Mountain Ungulate Ovis gmelini ophion (Cyprus Mouflon) at Pafos Forest

Eliades

Astaras²,

Messios

et al. 2022

Animals

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Availability of alternative prey rather than intraguild interactions determines the local abundance of two understudied and threatened small carnivore species

Hernández-Sánchez,

Santos-Moreno

2024

PLoS ONE

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Intraguild interactions influence the structure and local dynamics of carnivore mammals’ assemblages. The potential effects of these interactions are often determined by the body size of competing members and may result in negative relationships in their abundance and, ultimately, lead to species exclusion or coexistence. The relative importance of interspecific interactions along with landscape characteristics in determining population patterns of understudied and threatened sympatric small carnivores, such as skunks, remains poorly documented. Therefore, we assessed the spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of American hog-nosed skunks Conepatus leuconotus and pygmy spotted skunks Spilogale pygmaea and the effect of interspecific interactions, resource availability, and habitat complexity on their local abundance in areas with the deciduous tropical forest south of the Mexican Pacific slope. We used presence-absence data for skunk species from three camera-trapping surveys between 2018 and 2020 in combination with Royle-Nichols occupancy models fitted in a Bayesian framework to estimate abundance, incorporating the effects of covariates related to the factors evaluated. We analyzed the relationship between the abundances of skunks using Bayesian Generalized Linear Models. Both skunk species showed significant differences in their abundances between seasons and between study sites. Overall, pygmy skunks were more abundant than hog-nosed skunks. We found negative relationships among the relative abundances of skunks during the dry seasons, but no evidence that local abundance is governed by the competitive dominance of the larger species. Patterns of skunk abundance were better explained by prey availability and other predictors related to habitat complexity, rather than interspecific interactions, since these models showed the highest predictive accuracies and strong positive and negative relationships. Our study highlights the underlying factors that determine the local abundance of these understudied and threatened small carnivores, allowing us to better understand the mechanisms that govern their coexistence for effective management and conservation of species in seasonal environments.

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Vertebrates visiting natural waterholes in a tropical seasonal habitat in central México

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Artificial Water Troughs Use by the Mountain Ungulate Ovis gmelini ophion (Cyprus Mouflon) at Pafos Forest

Artificial Water Troughs Use by the Mountain Ungulate Ovis gmelini ophion (Cyprus Mouflon) at Pafos Forest

Availability of alternative prey rather than intraguild interactions determines the local abundance of two understudied and threatened small carnivore species

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