IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Kasper, C.B.; Peters, F.B.; Christoff, A.U.; de Freitas, T.R.O. | |
| Trophic relationships of sympatric small carnivores in fragmented landscapes of southern Brazil: niche overlap and potential for competition | |
| 2016 Mammalia (80): 143-152 | |
Between 2000 and 2010, digestive tracts collected from carnivore carcasses found in southern Brazil were analyzed to determine the frequency and proportion of items constituting the diets of each species. Material was collected and analyzed from 194 animals of 10 species: _Cerdocyon thous_, _Lycalopex gymnocercus _(Canidae), _Procyon cancrivorus _(Procyonidae), _Galictis cuja _(Mustelidae), _Conepatus chinga _(Mephitidae), _Leopardus colocolo_, _Leopardus geoffroyi_, _Leopardus guttulus_, _Leopardus wiedii_, and _Puma yagouaroundi _(Felidae). Most of these species are sympatric, which makes them potential competitors when sharing, to a greater or lesser degree, the same resources. The food niche breadth was relatively narrow, demonstrating that even generalist species, such as the crab-eating raccoon, used food resources rather unequally. An extensive overlap ( > 90%) in food niches was found among the cat species, the grison, and the Pampas fox, which had diets based on rodents. Crab-eating raccoons occupied a different food niche, based on aquatic or semiaquatic prey and fruits. _Conepatus chinga _was unique in exploiting arthropods and insect larvae as basic dietary items. |
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