IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Bahaa-el-din, L. | |
| Ecology and conservation of the African golden cat_ Caracal aurata_ | |
| 2015 Full Book | |
The African golden cat _Caracal aurata_, hitherto almost unstudied, is Africa's only forestdependent felid. As such, it has the potential to act as both an indicator and flagship species for Africa's rainforests, which face threats from rapid development, exploitation, deforestation, human population increase, and bushmeat hunting. I collected camera trap and scat data over four years (2010 - 2013) in the central African country of Gabon to assess the impact of these threats on golden cat populations, as well as gain insight into the behavioural ecology of the species. I used spatially-explicit capture-recapture models to estimate population density of golden cats across five sites differing in human-land use, including two protected areas, two logging concessions, and a site with subsistence bushmeat hunting. Density was highest at the undisturbed protected site (16.23 individuals per 100 km2) and lowest at the hunting site (3.8 individuals per 100 km2), with evidence of the latter being a result of wire snare use. The logging concessions supported important populations of golden cats (10.18 - 12.84 individuals per 100 km2), suggesting that areas under concessions can be included within the conservation estate, provided they are operated under a sound management plan. Golden cats occur in sympatry with leopards_ Panthera pardus_ in most of their range and there is evidence that leopards compete with, and prey on, golden cats, potentially limiting golden cat populations. In areas of sympatry, golden cat activity was cathemeral, but differed significantly in areas where leopards have been extirpated by people, displaying mostly nocturnal-crepuscular activity. This provides evidence of behavioural plasticity in response to differing guild structure, supporting the mesopredator release hypothesis that mid-ranking predators respond to the removal of apex predators. Such behavioural shifts likely facilitate resource acquisition and avoidance of other threats, such as humans. Where the two species co-occur, their shared use of trails leads to high spatial overlap. However, at the finer spatio-temporal scale, golden cats generally avoided camera trap stations until at least one day after a leopard had gone past. Food niche overlap between the two species was low (0.18, where 0 is no overlap and 1 is complete overlap), with golden cats and leopards mostly consuming rodents and ungulates, respectively. I conclude that mechanisms of coexistence between the two felids include fine-scale reactive avoidance by golden cats, and food niche segregation. This research reveals that co-existence between competing species can happen at a fine-scale, and that broad-scale displacement of mesopredators need not occur. Mesopredators may adapt to human-induced changes in dominant species' ecology and behaviour in order to persist in the face of disturbance. |
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