Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile
Habitat loss and fragmentation and human-wildlife conflicts, often resulting in retaliatory killing in response to livestock predation, are one of the main threats to wild felids worldwide, including pumas (Puma concolor). However, mesocarnivores are more abundant than large carnivores, live closer...
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Virginia Tech
2021
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ftvirginiatec:oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/103440 2024-05-19T07:38:45+00:00 Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile Osorio Popiolek, Christian Thomaz Fish and Wildlife Conservation Kelly, Marcella J. Karpanty, Sarah M. Wultsch, Claudia Cherry, Michael J. 2021-05-21 ETD application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103440 unknown Virginia Tech vt_gsexam:30675 http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103440 In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ carnivores mesocarnivores habitat use human-wildlife conflict mega-wildfires Dissertation 2021 ftvirginiatec 2024-04-24T00:41:47Z Habitat loss and fragmentation and human-wildlife conflicts, often resulting in retaliatory killing in response to livestock predation, are one of the main threats to wild felids worldwide, including pumas (Puma concolor). However, mesocarnivores are more abundant than large carnivores, live closer to human settlements, and drive community structure and processes in similar or different ways from large predators. Understanding both large and small carnivores' habitat use is key to their conservation and management. Thus, there is need to explore the ecological roles of predators (including invasive ones like free-ranging dogs [Canis lupus familiaris] and cats [Felis catus]) to examine how ecological context modulates the ecological roles of carnivores . This is especially important in my study area, which was severely burned by a catastrophic mega-wildfire in 2017. I used dynamic occupancy modeling of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) across 52 provinces for 8 years in Chile and found that free-ranging dogs outpace pumas in livestock depredation, killing substantially more livestock than pumas. Occupancy models show that HWC occurrence for both dogs and pumas increased with sheep density. Unexpectedly, dog HWC decreased with anthropogenic habitat degradation indicating that dogs may travel far to prey on livestock. The emergence of puma HWC in a site where it did not occur in the previous year was positively associated with anthropic disturbance. Countrywide, dogs HWC occurrence probability was higher than pumas in 43 out of the 49 provinces where both species occurred. I discuss livestock vulnerability, management strategies, and policy to mitigate HWC, and also highlight threats that free-ranging dogs pose to biodiversity conservation and even human public health. I also used single-species, single-season occupancy models fit to camera-trap data to investigate the patterns of site occupancy and response to mega-wildfires of native mesocarnivores in southern-central Chile: guignas (Leopardus guigna), culpeo foxes ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Canis lupus VTechWorks (VirginiaTech) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
VTechWorks (VirginiaTech) |
op_collection_id |
ftvirginiatec |
language |
unknown |
topic |
carnivores mesocarnivores habitat use human-wildlife conflict mega-wildfires |
spellingShingle |
carnivores mesocarnivores habitat use human-wildlife conflict mega-wildfires Osorio Popiolek, Christian Thomaz Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile |
topic_facet |
carnivores mesocarnivores habitat use human-wildlife conflict mega-wildfires |
description |
Habitat loss and fragmentation and human-wildlife conflicts, often resulting in retaliatory killing in response to livestock predation, are one of the main threats to wild felids worldwide, including pumas (Puma concolor). However, mesocarnivores are more abundant than large carnivores, live closer to human settlements, and drive community structure and processes in similar or different ways from large predators. Understanding both large and small carnivores' habitat use is key to their conservation and management. Thus, there is need to explore the ecological roles of predators (including invasive ones like free-ranging dogs [Canis lupus familiaris] and cats [Felis catus]) to examine how ecological context modulates the ecological roles of carnivores . This is especially important in my study area, which was severely burned by a catastrophic mega-wildfire in 2017. I used dynamic occupancy modeling of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) across 52 provinces for 8 years in Chile and found that free-ranging dogs outpace pumas in livestock depredation, killing substantially more livestock than pumas. Occupancy models show that HWC occurrence for both dogs and pumas increased with sheep density. Unexpectedly, dog HWC decreased with anthropogenic habitat degradation indicating that dogs may travel far to prey on livestock. The emergence of puma HWC in a site where it did not occur in the previous year was positively associated with anthropic disturbance. Countrywide, dogs HWC occurrence probability was higher than pumas in 43 out of the 49 provinces where both species occurred. I discuss livestock vulnerability, management strategies, and policy to mitigate HWC, and also highlight threats that free-ranging dogs pose to biodiversity conservation and even human public health. I also used single-species, single-season occupancy models fit to camera-trap data to investigate the patterns of site occupancy and response to mega-wildfires of native mesocarnivores in southern-central Chile: guignas (Leopardus guigna), culpeo foxes ... |
author2 |
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Kelly, Marcella J. Karpanty, Sarah M. Wultsch, Claudia Cherry, Michael J. |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Osorio Popiolek, Christian Thomaz |
author_facet |
Osorio Popiolek, Christian Thomaz |
author_sort |
Osorio Popiolek, Christian Thomaz |
title |
Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile |
title_short |
Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile |
title_full |
Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile |
title_fullStr |
Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across Chile |
title_sort |
wild carnivore habitat use and community ecology in a biodiversity hotspot and human-wildlife conflict with pumas and dogs across chile |
publisher |
Virginia Tech |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103440 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_relation |
vt_gsexam:30675 http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103440 |
op_rights |
In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
_version_ |
1799478239443288064 |