Daily and seasonal activity patterns of the dorcas gazelle, scimitar‐horned oryx, north‐African ostrich and canids in an arid habitat

Abstract

AbstractNorth Africa's megafauna has developed behavioural adaptations to reduce energetic and fitness costs under harsh arid land conditions. Animal behaviour and activity patterns are difficult to study in the wild, but remote camera traps provide a solution to collecting data without the presence of a researcher influencing outcomes. Here, we report results from a study comprising over 20,382 camera‐trap days during a 34‐month period in Dghoumes National Park, Tunisia. We aimed to evaluate temporal activity patterns and their overlap and explore opportunities for niche partitioning. Our focal species were the reintroduced scimitar‐horned oryx, north‐African ostrich, dorcas gazelles and extant regional top‐order predators, African wolf and red fox. We found differences in activity patterns between seasons across the focal species, with the most noticeable change being an increase in dawn activity from 1% to 33% between winter and summer for the red fox. Consequently, higher summer temperatures limit opportunities for temporal niche partitioning and push focal species towards dawn‐time activity peaks resulting in higher intra‐guild overlap values at dawn. Arid antelopes have physiological adaptations that enable them to better exploit ecological resources in hotter time periods than the carnivores, and this reduces inter‐guild overlap during summer days.