Ravines as conservation strongholds for small wildcats under pressure from free-ranging dogs and cats in Mediterranean landscapes of Chile

The Chilean Mediterranean ecosystem is threatened by anthropogenic pressures, such as habitat loss by intensive agriculture and urban sprawl. Abandoned dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and cats (Felis silvestris catus) pose conservation challenges for Chilean wildlife including the pampas cat (Leopardu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment
Main Authors: Beltrami, Esperanza, Galvez, Nicolas, Osorio, Christian, Kelly, Marcella J., Morales Moraga, David, Bonacic, Cristian
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD 2024
Subjects:
Mediterranean ecosystems
Leopardus colocolo
Leopardus guigna
free-ranging dogs and cats
activity patterns
two-species occupancy models
GUINA LEOPARDUS-GUIGNA
VULNERABLE GUINA
DOMESTIC DOGS
MAMMALIAN CARNIVORES
ONCIFELIS-GUIGNA
NATURAL-HISTORY
HABITAT USE
FOREST
OCCUPANCY
Guina
Canis lupus
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10533/76292
https://doi.org/10.1080/01650521.2021.1933691
https://repositorio.uc.cl/handle/11534/76745
Description
Summary:The Chilean Mediterranean ecosystem is threatened by anthropogenic pressures, such as habitat loss by intensive agriculture and urban sprawl. Abandoned dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and cats (Felis silvestris catus) pose conservation challenges for Chilean wildlife including the pampas cat (Leopardus colocolo) and the guina (Leopardus guigna). We used camera trap data to investigate influences of natural and anthropogenic landscape features on spatiotemporal trends of these species. We also used co-occurrence modeling and kernel density estimation to investigate spatial and temporal patterns overlap of wildcats, free-ranging (FR) dogs, and FR-cats. FR-dogs showed the highest detection and site use probabilities, while guinas had the lowest across 80 camera trap sites. Top models showed no spatial avoidance between species and co-occurrence of wildcats was positively influenced by forest habitat. However, FR-dogs negatively affected detection of wildcats. Ravines surrounded by forest positively influenced guina and pampas cat detection probabilities when dominant species were not present. FR-dogs and wildcats had significantly different temporal activity patterns and low overlap coefficients, while wildcats and FR-cats showed high overlap in activity patterns. We suggest changing current policies to control domestic animals and strategic planning in agricultural areas of central Chile to better conserve native wildcat species. National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development, FONDECYT Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research Grants: ANID Master Grant Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research Grants: Doctoral Grants

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