Parchizadeh Jamshid, Schooler Sarah L, Adibi Mohammad Ali, Arias Mariano G, Rezaei Sahar, Belant Jerrold L
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan USA.
Global Wildlife Conservation Center State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse New York USA.
Ecol Evol. 2023 May 25;13(5):e10130. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10130. eCollection 2023 May.
Co-occurring carnivore species that are phylogenetically related or of similar size, morphology, and ecological needs often reduce competition by partitioning shared resources through temporal, spatial, and dietary niche segregation via behavioral adaptations. Caracals () and jungle cats () co-occur in portions of their geographical ranges and are expected to display resource segregation in these ranges. We compiled scat, stomach content, and prey remains found data from published and unpublished sources to summarize information on the diets of caracals and jungle cats across their geographical ranges during 1842-2021. We obtained 63 sources from 26 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in which caracal diet included 151 species while jungle cat diet included 61 species. We found that caracals and jungle cats did not exhibit dietary niche partitioning and had greater dietary similarities in areas of range overlap. We also found that caracals consumed more diverse prey species including prey with greater average body mass compared to jungle cats. Our results suggest that greater prey diversity in areas of range overlap, caracal predation on wide range of prey, and opportunistic feeding behavior that facilitates consumption of more diverse prey species compared to jungle cats, may facilitate co-occurrence between these two felid species.
在系统发育上相关或大小、形态和生态需求相似的共生食肉动物物种，通常会通过行为适应在时间、空间和饮食生态位上进行隔离，从而划分共享资源，以减少竞争。狞猫（）和丛林猫（）在其地理分布的部分区域共生，预计它们在这些区域会表现出资源隔离。我们收集了1842年至2021年期间已发表和未发表资料中关于狞猫和丛林猫饮食的粪便、胃内容物及猎物残骸发现数据。我们从欧洲、亚洲和非洲的26个国家获取了63份资料，其中狞猫的饮食包括151个物种，而丛林猫的饮食包括61个物种。我们发现，狞猫和丛林猫没有表现出饮食生态位划分，在分布重叠区域饮食相似性更高。我们还发现，与丛林猫相比，狞猫捕食的猎物种类更多样，包括平均体重更大的猎物。我们的研究结果表明，在分布重叠区域猎物多样性更高、狞猫对广泛猎物的捕食以及与丛林猫相比更有利于捕食更多样化猎物种类的机会主义取食行为，可能促进了这两种猫科动物的共生。
