Mesopredator spatial and temporal responses to large predators and human development in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California

By Yiwei Wang, M. L. Allen, C. Wilmers. 2015

300 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Human-driven declines of apex predators can trigger widespread impacts throughout ecological communities. Reduced apex predator occupancy or activity can release mesopredators from intraguild competition, with unknown repercussions on the ecological community. As exurban development continues to expand worldwide, it is important to document how mesopredators are impacted by the combined influences of apex predators and humans. We used motion-detecting camera traps to examine spatial and temporal patterns of meso- and apex predator occupancy and activity in a fragmented landscape in California. We hypothesized that both spatial and temporal partitioning among the carnivore guild would be affected by varied levels of human influence. We found that higher residential development reduced puma occupancy but was not related to the occupancy of mesopredators. Bobcats, grey foxes, and Virginia opossums were detected more often at sites occupied by pumas, whereas coyotes and raccoons were detected less often. The detection probabilities of smaller mesopredators were related to coyotes, a dominant mesopredator, but the magnitude and direction of these correlations differed depending upon puma occupancy. We also found that species altered their activities temporally in locations with higher human use, with pumas, bobcats and coyotes reducing diurnal activities and increasing nocturnal ones. These activity shifts were reflected in reduced temporal partitioning between intraguild competitors, with unknown effects on species interactions and repercussions to the prey community. Our results suggest that human development and activity alters predator community structure through both direct and indirect pathways. Therefore effective carnivore conservation requires an understanding of how mesopredators respond to varying levels of apex predator and anthropogenic influences.

Subfields: Ecology, Small Animals

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bf13ac207706babfc4af0f483078d5bf84471915

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Citations in the corpus

A multispecies occupancy model for two or more interacting species (2016, background): “…can be influenced by the presence of predators (Willems & Hill 2009; Coleman&Hill 2014), competitive exclusionmay prevent infe- rior competitors from occupying habitat (Sherry & Holmes 1988; Wang et al. 2015a), or habitat use may be facilitated by the presence of another species (Veblen 2012).”
Investigating animal activity patterns and temporal niche partitioning using camera‐trap data: challenges and opportunities (2017, methodology): “However, very few studies have empirically quantified how external factors may influence temporal niche partitioning (but see Wang et al. 2015).”