Villalva Pablo, Palomares Francisco, Zanin Marina
Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Sevilla, Spain.
Department of Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Conserv Biol. 2025 Apr;39(2):e14364. doi: 10.1111/cobi.14364. Epub 2024 Sep 3.
Anthropogenic activities may alter felid assemblage structure, facilitating the persistence of tolerant species (commonly mesopredators), excluding ecologically demanding ones (top predators) and, consequently, changing coexistence rules. We aimed to determine how human activities influence intraguild relationships among top predators and their cascading effects on mesopredators, which remain poorly understood despite evidence of top carnivore decline. We used structural equation modeling at a continental scale to investigate how habitat quality and quantity, livestock density, and other human pressures modified the intraguild relations of the 3 species that are at the top of the food chain in the Neotropics: jaguars (Panthera onca), pumas (Puma concolor), and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis). We included presence-absence data derived from systematic studies compiled in Neocarnivores data set for these felid species at 0.0833° resolution. Human disturbance reduced the probability of jaguar occurrence by -0.35 standard deviations. Unexpectedly, the presence of sheep (Ovis aries) or goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) and jaguars was positively related to the presence of pumas, whereas puma presence was negatively related to the presence of ocelots. Extent of forest cover had more of an effect on jaguar (β = 0.23) and ocelot (β = 0.12) occurrences than the extent of protected area, which did not have a significant effect. The lack of effect of human activities on puma presence and the positive effect of small livestock supports the notion that pumas are more adaptable to habitat disturbance than jaguars. Our findings suggest that human disturbance has the potential to reverse the hierarchical competition dominance among large felids, leading to an unbalanced community structure. This shift disadvantages jaguars and elevates the position of pumas in the assemblage hierarchy, resulting in the exclusion of ocelots, despite their relatively lower susceptibility to anthropogenic disturbance. Our results suggest that conservation efforts should extend beyond protected areas to encompass the surrounding landscape, where complexities and potential conflicts are more pronounced.
人为活动可能会改变猫科动物群落结构，促进耐受性物种（通常是中型食肉动物）的存续，排除对生态环境要求较高的物种（顶级食肉动物），从而改变共存规则。我们旨在确定人类活动如何影响顶级食肉动物之间的种内关系以及它们对中型食肉动物的级联效应，尽管有证据表明顶级食肉动物数量在减少，但这方面仍知之甚少。我们在大陆尺度上使用结构方程模型来研究栖息地质量和数量、牲畜密度以及其他人类压力如何改变新热带地区食物链顶端的三种物种的种内关系：美洲豹（Panthera onca）、美洲狮（Puma concolor）和豹猫（Leopardus pardalis）。我们纳入了来自新食肉动物数据集中系统研究的这些猫科动物物种在0.0833°分辨率下的存在-缺失数据。人类干扰使美洲豹出现的概率降低了0.35个标准差。出乎意料的是，绵羊（Ovis aries）或山羊（Capra aegagrus hircus）以及美洲豹的存在与美洲狮的存在呈正相关，而美洲狮的存在与豹猫的存在呈负相关。森林覆盖范围对美洲豹（β = 0.23）和豹猫（β = 0.12）出现的影响比保护区范围更大，保护区范围没有显著影响。人类活动对美洲狮存在缺乏影响以及小型牲畜的积极影响支持了这样一种观点，即美洲狮比美洲豹更能适应栖息地干扰。我们的研究结果表明，人类干扰有可能扭转大型猫科动物之间的等级竞争优势，导致群落结构失衡。这种转变对美洲豹不利，并提升了美洲狮在群落等级中的地位，导致豹猫被排除，尽管它们对人为干扰的敏感性相对较低。我们的结果表明，保护工作应超越保护区，涵盖周边景观，那里的复杂性和潜在冲突更为明显。
