Spatial Co-Occurrence and Activity Patterns of Mesocarnivores in the Temperate Forests of Southwest China

摘要: Understanding the interactions between species and their coexistence mechanisms will help explain biodiversity maintenance enable managers to make sound conservation decisions. Mesocarnivores are abundant diverse mid-sized carnivores can have profound impacts on function, structure dynamics of ecosystem after extirpation apex predators in many ecosystems. The moist temperate forests Southwest China harbor a community mesocarnivores absence predators. Sympatric tend partition limited resources along time, diet space facilitate coexistence. We determined spatial temporal patterns for five mesocarnivores. used detection histories from large camera-trap dataset collected 2004–2015 with an extensive effort 23,313 camera-days 495 camera locations. mesocarnivore included masked palm civet Paguma larvata, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, hog badger Arctonyx collaris, yellow-throated marten Martes flavigula, Siberian weasel Mustela sibirica. Only tended avoid each other; while other pairs species, they occurred independently other, or no clear pattern observed. With regard seasonal activity, was most active winter, opposite observed civet, badger. For diel were primarily nocturnal crepuscular; diurnal, had year (March November), but winter (December February). shift may be due high overlap among winter. Our results provided new facts insights into this unique southwest China, future studies mechanism determining animal within complex system.