Abstract
Understanding the factors that influence the presence and distribution of carnivores in human-dominated agricultural landscapes is one of the main challenges for biodiversity conservation, especially in landscapes where setting aside large protected areas is not feasible. Habitat use models of carnivore communities in rubber plantations are lacking despite the critical roles carnivores play in structuring ecosystems and the increasing expansion of rubber plantations. We investigated the habitat use of a mammalian carnivore community within a 4,200-ha rubber plantation/forest landscape in Bahia, Brazil. We placed two different brands of camera traps in a 90-site grid. We used a multispecies occupancy model to determine the probabilities of habitat use by each species and the effect of different brands of camera traps on their detection probabilities. Species showed significant differences in habitat use with domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) and crab-eating foxes (Cerdocyon thous) having higher probabilities of using rubber groves and coatis (Nasua nasua) having a higher probability of using forest. The moderate level of captures and low detection probabilities (≤ 0.1) of tayras (Eira barbara) and wildcats (Leopardus spp.) precluded a precise estimation of habitat use probabilities using the multispecies occupancy model. The different brands of camera traps had a significant effect on the detection probability of all species. Given that the carnivore community has persisted in this 70-year-old landscape, the results show the potential of rubber/forest landscapes to provide for the long-term conservation of carnivore communities in the Atlantic forest, especially in mosaics with 30–40% forest cover and guard patrolling systems. The results also provide insights for mitigating the impact of rubber production on biodiversity.
Highlights
Determining how wildlife respond to landscape modifications is one of the principal goals of conservation ecology, if we aim to devise effective land management strategies to ensure their long-term persistence in human-dominated landscapes
Responses of mammalian carnivores to agricultural lands vary, depending on the type of cultivar and the amount and configuration of native vegetation remaining in the matrix, and on the ecology of each species [1,2,3]
Species responses to land conversion resulting in differential habitat use may modulate intra/interspecific interactions, and influence the effect of the species on other tropic levels [4,5,6]
Summary
Determining how wildlife respond to landscape modifications is one of the principal goals of conservation ecology, if we aim to devise effective land management strategies to ensure their long-term persistence in human-dominated landscapes. Given that predators play critical roles in ecosystem structure and function [7], devising land management strategies for carnivore conservation in agricultural landscapes requires investigations of habitat use on each carnivore species in the community. The demand for natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) is one of the principal drivers of forest conversion in some of the most species-rich rainforests, with more than 2 million ha planted globally during the past decade [9]. In mainland southeast Asia, an additional 4.3–8.5 million ha are expected to be planted by 2024 [9] Given this situation, it is essential to determine how carnivores use rubber plantation landscapes and whether land management strategies can be devised to accommodate these species. Previous studies have documented carnivore habitat use within tropical agricultural landscapes, none has done so in a rubber/forest mosaic and within a multispecies occupancy modeling framework
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