Occurrence and intraguild interactions of mesocarnivores in the North Sahara Desert, southern Tunisia

Abstract

Differential habitat use and intraguild competition are both thought to be important drivers of carnivore species distributions and abundance. To assess how habitat factors and interspecific interactions affect the structure of this widespread carnivore guild, we developed occupancy models for multi-scale habitat of the following three canids: African golden wolf (Canis lupaster), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) present in North Africa. Species occurrence records were obtained between January 2014 and January 2016 from 175 sites, covering the southern Tunisia. Occupancies were estimated to be 0.74 ± 0.07, 0.69 ± 0.09, and 0.18 ± 0.06, for red fox, African golden wolf and fennec fox, respectively. Our results showed that distribution constraints for these three canids tend to be linked to human factors, reptile densities and land cover. The co-occurrence models highlighted the interactions between canids. African golden wolf occurrence was unaffected by the presence of other carnivores. Red fox was strongly associated with the African golden wolf. Unlike the African golden wolf, red fox appeared to strongly influence fennec fox occupancy. This study could be valuable for assessing patterns of distribution and impacts of landscape change elsewhere in their ranges.