IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Viere, P. | |
| Puma activity and mesocarnivores | |
| 2014 Conference Proceeding | |
Apex predators may exert top down effects on ecological communities directly by affecting the abundance and distribution of herbivores through predation and predator avoidance, or indirectly by affecting herbivores thorugh similar effects on mesocarnivores. Our objective was to determine whether there was a significant negative association between puma (_Puma concolor_) activity and the activitiy of mesocarnivores coyote (_Canis latrans)_, bobcat (_Lynx rufus_) and gray fox (_Utrocyon cinereoargenteus_) activity as measured by photographic rates on remote cameras. We used photographic data collected from 18 May 2008 to 1 June 2012 from 25 remote cameras distributed at fixed locations over 100 km2 in south-central New Mexico. We logged a total of 25,475 camera nights and collected 538 photos of puma, 892 of coyote, 278 of bobcat, and 2,945 of gray fox. Negative binomial regressions revealed a significant negative association between puma activity and coyote activity (z =-14.423; df = 25; p < 0.0001) and puma and bobcat activity (z = -2.417; df = 25; p = 0.008). We also found a negative association between puma and gray fox but this relationship was not statistically significant (z =-0.932, df = 25, p = 0.176). Our data support the hypothesis that puma reduce the presence smaller carnivores. If puma do displace mesocarnivores to the degree we have observed, puma may exert additional effects on ecosystem processes quite apart from the large herbivore mediated processes with which we are more familiar. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that differences in fine scale habitat preferences among these species are responsible for the patterns we observed in this study. Rigorous comparisons between areas with and without puma, or before and after puma area removed/added, could address this ambiguity. |
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