IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Machado, I.O. | |
| Activity and habitat occupancy patterns of carnivores in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park | |
| 2022 Full Book | |
Carnivores (Mammalia, Carnivora) play important roles in ecosystems as they are top predators and control populations of herbivores and small vertebrates. Despite the important ecological roles of carnivores, more than half of the species in the order are threatened, mainly due to habitat loss, and knowledge gaps exist about these species in many biomes of the world. To define management and conservation strategies for carnivores, it is essential to understand how they use the habitat, the times of day they are active and the mechanisms that allow the coexistence of competing species, especially in anthropic areas. To understand how biotic and abiotic factors influence the pattern of activity and occupation of the habitat of carnivores in a conservation unit in the Cerrado, I used data from camera traps collected over a year. The focal species of the study were the puma (_Puma concolor_), the ocelot (_Leopardus pardalis_), the hog-nosed skunk (_Conepatus semistriatus_), the crab-eating fox (_Cerdocyon thous_), the hoary fox (_Lycalopex vetulus_) and the maned wolf (_Chrysocyon brachyurus_). All species were active mainly during the night and twilight and showed a high overlap of the time of activity. However, the species' peak activity times did not overlap, suggesting that competition is a secondary mechanism in determining the activity pattern of these species. The activity patterns of the crab-eating fox and the cougar were statistically different, which indicates that the canid may be avoiding the competing species in time to avoid agonistic interactions. Species activity patterns did not differ significantly between seasons, but crab-eating fox and skunk tended to be more diurnal in the wet season, while puma tended to be more diurnal in the dry season. Regarding the habitat use pattern, the null model was the best ranked for the puma, the maned wolf and the crab-eating fox. In the case of the first, the data had very high overdispersion, which made inferences impossible. In the case of the maned wolf and the crab-eating fox, the result corroborates the flexibility of behavior of the species. The only covariate that influenced the hoary fox's occupation was the distance from the city and the species had a higher occupation near the city, which may indicate tolerance to human presence. The lack of response of the species to the distances from the highway and the city suggests that the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, due to its extensive and well-conserved area, is able to dampen the negative effects of the proximity of the highway and the city on the fauna. In addition, the lack of response from carnivores at a distance from the tourist spot may indicate a functional response by them to the frequent human presence within the park. |
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