Smith Kyle, Venter Jan A, Peel Mike, Keith Mark, Somers Michael J
Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa.
Department of Conservation Management, Faculty of Science, George Campus Nelson Mandela University George South Africa.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Aug 15;13(8):e10380. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10380. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Carnivora occupy many ecological niches fundamental to ecosystem functioning. Within this diverse order, carnivore species compete to establish dominance, ensure survival and maintain fitness. Subordinate carnivores must, therefore, adapt their behaviour to coexist with dominant species. One such strategy is the partitioning of temporal activity patterns. We aim to determine interspecific avoidance patterns among sympatric carnivores by examining coexistence along a temporal axis. We compared the temporal activity patterns of 13 carnivore species using multi-seasonal camera trapping data from four protected areas across South Africa: Associated Private Nature Reserves, Madikwe Game Reserve, Mountain Zebra National Park and Tswalu Kalahari Reserve. Interspecific coefficients of overlap in diel and core activity periods were calculated over the study period and during the wet and dry seasons. Furthermore, interspecific spatiotemporal behaviour was examined using time-to-event analyses. Our results showed that complete avoidance of diel activity patterns was rare among South African carnivore species. Most species were predominantly nocturnal and, therefore, diel activity overlap was high, whereas core activity overlap was significantly lower ( < .001). Diel activity overlap was significantly lower during the dry than wet seasons ( = .045). Lastly, evidence of spatiotemporal aggregation revolved around scavenging species. We show the importance of seasonality in the temporal avoidance behaviours of South African carnivores while highlighting the need for fine-scaled behavioural analyses. Overall, we show that the daily activity patterns of most subordinate South African carnivore species are not influenced by top-down forces in the form of competitional suppression and risk exerted by dominant species. If avoidance is required, it is more likely to manifest as fine-scaled avoidance of core activity periods. We suggest that the focus on core activity periods might be a more suitable tool for interspecific temporal partitioning research.
食肉目动物占据着许多对生态系统功能至关重要的生态位。在这个多样化的目里，食肉动物物种相互竞争以确立优势地位、确保生存并维持健康状态。因此，从属食肉动物必须调整其行为以与优势物种共存。一种这样的策略是时间活动模式的划分。我们旨在通过研究沿时间轴的共存情况来确定同域食肉动物之间的种间回避模式。我们使用来自南非四个保护区（联合私人自然保护区、马迪克韦野生动物保护区、山斑马国家公园和茨瓦卢卡拉哈里保护区）的多季节相机陷阱数据，比较了13种食肉动物的时间活动模式。在研究期间以及雨季和旱季，计算了昼夜和核心活动期的种间重叠系数。此外，使用事件时间分析研究了种间时空行为。我们的结果表明，在南非食肉动物物种中，完全回避昼夜活动模式的情况很少见。大多数物种主要在夜间活动，因此，昼夜活动重叠度很高，而核心活动重叠度则显著较低（<0.001）。旱季的昼夜活动重叠度明显低于雨季（=0.045）。最后，时空聚集的证据围绕着食腐动物物种。我们展示了季节性在南非食肉动物时间回避行为中的重要性，同时强调了进行精细行为分析的必要性。总体而言，我们表明大多数从属南非食肉动物物种的日常活动模式不受优势物种以竞争抑制和风险形式施加的自上而下力量的影响。如果需要回避，更可能表现为对核心活动期的精细回避。我们建议，关注核心活动期可能是种间时间划分研究更合适的工具。
