IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Edgaonkar, A.; Sunquist, M.; Qureshi, Q. | |
| Patterns of Spatial Co-Occurrence in Leopards (_Panthera pardus_) and Dholes (_Cuon alpinus_) in Satpura Tiger Reserve, India | |
| 2007 Conference Proceeding | |
There have been numerous anecdotes and some recorded instances of agonistic interactions between leopards and dholes. We used the co-occurrence of tracks to assess whether the two species tended to use the same spatial area at different times. A system of trails was divided into 500 m contiguous sections and monitored for the presence of tracks of leopards, dholes and other carnivores over three years in summer and winter. Two hundred and twelve sections were repeatedly scanned by two observers for the presence of tracks a total of 5294 times. There was some evidence for structuring in the use of sections by the carnivore community as described by the C-score index, generated against a null model. Dholes were more widespread in their use of the trails than leopards. Both leopards and dholes consistently used more sections in winter than in summer. There was a weak negative relationship between use of sections by leopards and by dholes for sections intensively used by leopards. The proportion of times tracks of the two species co-occurred was compared to the expectation in all sections, in sections with a high encounter rate of prey species, and seasonally. The evidence for avoidance is discussed. |
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