Abstract
Carnivores have long been used as model organisms to examine mechanisms that allow coexistence among ecologically similar species. Interactions between carnivores, including competition and predation, comprise important processes regulating local community structure and diversity. We use data from an intensive camera-trapping monitoring program across eight Neotropical forest sites to describe the patterns of spatiotemporal organization of a guild of five sympatric cat species: jaguar (Panthera onca), puma (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) and margay (Leopardus wiedii). For the three largest cat species, we developed multi-stage occupancy models accounting for habitat characteristics (landscape complexity and prey availability) and models accounting for species interactions (occupancy estimates of potential competitor cat species). Patterns of habitat-use were best explained by prey availability, rather than habitat structure or species interactions, with no evidence of negative associations of jaguar on puma and ocelot occupancy or puma on ocelot occupancy. We further explore temporal activity patterns and overlap of all five felid species. We observed a moderate temporal overlap between jaguar, puma and ocelot, with differences in their activity peaks, whereas higher temporal partitioning was observed between jaguarundi and both ocelot and margay. Lastly, we conducted temporal overlap analysis and calculated species activity levels across study sites to explore if shifts in daily activity within species can be explained by varying levels of local competition pressure. Activity patterns of ocelots, jaguarundis and margays were similarly bimodal across sites, but pumas exhibited irregular activity patterns, most likely as a response to jaguar activity. Activity levels were similar among sites and observed differences were unrelated to competition or intraguild killing risk. Our study reveals apparent spatial and temporal partitioning for most of the species pairs analyzed, with prey abundance being more important than species interactions in governing the local occurrence and spatial distribution of Neotropical forest felids.
Highlights
Species interactions comprise one of the most important processes maintaining the structure of local biological diversity, including how species with similar ecological requirements can coexist [1]
Five years of camera-trapping at each of the eight study sites amounted to a total sampling effort of 72,835 camera trap days across 480 camera trap stations, yielding 186 records of jaguar (Panthera onca), 255 of puma (Puma concolor), 915 of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), 81 of jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi), 99 of margay (Leopardus wiedii) and nine of oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus) (Table 2)
We have shown that jaguar, puma and ocelot exhibit clear spatial preferences at local to landscape scales according to prey availability
Summary
Species interactions comprise one of the most important processes maintaining the structure of local biological diversity, including how species with similar ecological requirements can coexist [1]. Among various existing interspecific ecological relationships, competitive and predation interactions, and their reciprocal effects, have the potential to affect diversity patterns each of which could either limit or promote coexistence [2]. Carnivore species are a model group to study mechanisms of coexistence, because they occupy higher trophic levels and exhibit greater similarity in morphology and ecological requirements [6,7,8,9]. Much evidence is available on interspecific killing involving different pairs of coexisting carnivore species [19,20,21,22], especially felids, which may have sweeping effects on carnivore community structure. Carnivores’ body size and morphological similarity have a strong influence on interspecific competition and killing, and it is expected that interspecific interactions should be higher when species pairs are closer in size [23]
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