Abstract
Knowledge on interference competition between species, particularly for scarce crucial resources, such as water, is a topic of increasing relevance for wildlife management given climate change scenarios. This study focuses on two sympatric canids, the African wolf and the side-striped jackal, to evaluate their group size and spatiotemporal activity patterns in the use of a limited resource by monitoring artificial waterholes in a semi-arid environment located in Senegal (West Africa). Remote cameras were deployed at five artificial waterholes to evaluate the number of individuals, age and activity patterns of resource use. African wolves (n = 71; 31% of all carnivore detections) and side-striped jackals (n = 104; 45%) were the most detected carnivore species. While both canids tended to occur alone at waterholes, they showed an evident monthly variation in group size. Both species showed a high activity overlap, with a bimodal activity pattern in waterhole use. However, we found evidence of unidirectional spatiotemporal avoidance, suggesting African wolves might be dominant over side-striped jackals. Our findings provide useful insights to investigate niche partitioning on the use of limited resources and have conservation implications for regions with a prolonged dry season.
Highlights
Describing and understanding animal activity can yield crucial insights into key factors affecting animal life, which can be relevant to understand wildlife ecology and to develop conservation plans [1,2]
Our results provide valuable insights into the group size and activity patterns of two poorly
We found a high activity overlap between African wolves and side-striped jackals during the use of a shared limited resource, apparently contradicting our initial hypothesis in which we expected our study species to segregate around waterholes to reduce competition
Summary
Describing and understanding animal activity can yield crucial insights into key factors affecting animal life, which can be relevant to understand wildlife ecology and to develop conservation plans [1,2]. Animal activity patterns are regulated internally by an endogenous clock but can be influenced by masking factors which may distort the main rhythm [2]. Masking factors can be both abiotic factors, such as light intensity and temperature, and biotic factors, such as human disturbance or intra and interspecific interactions [2]. Activity patterns can be partly adjusted according to environmental conditions [1]. Interspecific interactions play a important role in shaping behavioural patterns, which may be adjusted to maximize energetic gains and other biological needs, while reducing individual costs such as agonistic encounters with potential competitors and predators [1].
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