Spatial Co-Occurrence and Activity Patterns of Mesocarnivores in the Temperate Forests of Southwest China

dc.contributor.authorBu, Hongliang
dc.contributor.authorWang, Fang
dc.contributor.authorMcShea, William J.
dc.contributor.authorLu, Zhi
dc.contributor.authorWang, Dajun
dc.contributor.authorLi, Sheng
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-16T20:04:54Z
dc.date.available2016-11-16T20:04:54Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractUnderstanding the interactions between species and their coexistence mechanisms will help explain biodiversity maintenance and enable managers to make sound conservation decisions. Mesocarnivores are abundant and diverse mid-sized carnivores and can have profound impacts on the function, structure and dynamics of ecosystem after the extirpation of apex predators in many ecosystems. The moist temperate forests of Southwest China harbor a diverse community of mesocarnivores in the absence of apex predators. Sympatric species tend to partition limited resources along time, diet and space to facilitate coexistence. We determined the spatial and temporal patterns for five species of mesocarnivores. We used detection histories from a large camera-trap dataset collected from 2004-2015 with an extensive effort of 23,313 camera-days from 495 camera locations. The five mesocarnivore species included masked palm civet Paguma larvata, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, hog badger Arctonyx collaris, yellow-throated marten Martes flavigula, and Siberian weasel Mustela sibirica. Only the masked palm civet and hog badger tended to avoid each other; while for other pairs of species, they occurred independently of each other, or no clear pattern observed. With regard to seasonal activity, yellow-throated marten was most active in winter, opposite the pattern observed for masked palm civet, leopard cat and hog badger. For diel activity, masked palm civet, leopard cat and hog badger were primarily nocturnal and crepuscular; yellow-throated marten was diurnal, and Siberian weasel had no clear pattern for most of the year (March to November), but was nocturnal in the winter (December to February). The seasonal shift of the Siberian weasel may be due to the high diet overlap among species in winter. Our results provided new facts and insights into this unique community of mesocarnivores of southwest China, and will facilitate future studies on the mechanism determining coexistence of animal species within complex system.
dc.format.extent1–15
dc.identifier1932-6203
dc.identifier.citationBu, Hongliang, Wang, Fang, McShea, William J., Lu, Zhi, Wang, Dajun, and Li, Sheng. 2016. "<a href="https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/30022">Spatial Co-Occurrence and Activity Patterns of Mesocarnivores in the Temperate Forests of Southwest China</a>." <em>PloS One</em>, 11, (10) 1–15. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164271">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164271</a>.
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10088/30022
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science
dc.relation.ispartofPloS One 11 (10)
dc.titleSpatial Co-Occurrence and Activity Patterns of Mesocarnivores in the Temperate Forests of Southwest China
dc.typearticle
sro.description.unitCCEG
sro.description.unitNZP
sro.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0164271
sro.identifier.itemID140687
sro.identifier.refworksID31108
sro.identifier.urlhttps://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/30022
sro.publicationPlaceSan Francisco

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