Mesocarnivore landscape use along a gradient of urban, rural, and forest cover.

Abstract

Mesocarnivores fill a vital role in ecosystems through effects on community health and structure. Anthropogenic-altered landscapes can benefit some species and adversely affect others. For some carnivores, prey availability increases with urbanization, but landscape use can be complicated by interactions among carnivores as well as differing human tolerance of some species. We used camera traps to survey along a gradient of urban, rural, and forest cover to quantify how carnivore landscape use varies among guild members and determine if a species was a human exploiter, adapter, or avoider. Our study was conducted in and around Corvallis, Oregon from April 2018 to February 2019 (11,914 trap nights) using 47 camera trap locations on a gradient from urban to rural. Our focal species were bobcat (Lynx rufus), coyote (Canis latrans), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), opossum (Didelphis virginiana), raccoon (Procyon lotor), and striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). Raccoon and opossum were human exploiters with low use of forest cover and positive association with urban and rural developed areas likely due to human-derived resources as well as some refugia from larger predators. Coyote and gray fox were human adapters with high use of natural habitats while the effects of urbanization ranged from weak to indiscernible. Bobcat and striped skunk appeared to be human avoiders with negative relationship with urban cover and higher landscape use of forest cover. We conducted a diel temporal activity analysis and found mostly nocturnal activity within the guild, but more diurnal activity by larger-bodied predators compared to the smaller species. Although these species coexist as a community in human-dominated landscapes throughout much of North America, the effects of urbanization were not equal across species. Our results, especially for gray fox and striped skunk, are counter to research in other regions, suggesting that mesopredator use of urbanized landscapes can vary depending on the environmental conditions of the study area and management actions are likely to be most effective when decisions are based on locally derived data.