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Assessing resource and predator effects on habitat use of tropical small carnivores

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Abstract

Habitat use of animals is influenced by a combination of factors including food abundance and interactions with other species. Animals typically must forage while simultaneously avoiding predation from multiple potential predators, but habitat use in tropical forest ecosystems that assesses effects of both predation risk and resources has rarely been conducted. We used camera traps and occupancy analyses to document small mammalian carnivore occurrence in relation to food abundance and interactions with large predators. We hypothesized that habitat use of six small mammalian carnivores (≤15 kg) would be influenced by (1) abundance of resources (fruit, rodents, and streams) and/or (2) large predators. Predictions regarding food and habitat resources were only supported for one species (crab-eating mongoose, Urva urva), which was positively associated with rodents and streams. Three small carnivores (masked palm civet Paguma larvata, common palm civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, yellow-throated marten Martes flavigula) were affected negatively by leopard and mesopredators as predicted. Counter to our predictions, two species (masked palm civet and yellow-throated marten) showed spatial avoidance of tiger suggesting that an apex predator might also pose predation risk to small carnivores. The focal small carnivores and large predators of this study appeared to have moderately to highly overlapping temporal activity indicating no temporal avoidance. In conclusion, food resources appeared to have minimal effects for six small carnivores in this ecosystem probably due to continuous resource availability. Predation risk appeared to affect some species in terms of spatial occupancy but not in temporal activity, indicating perhaps complex, but not entirely negative interactions between larger carnivores and this guild of small carnivores. The mechanisms which facilitate co-occurrence between small carnivores and large predators may, however, operate at finer spatiotemporal scales than we investigated here.

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Acknowledgments

Permission to conduct research in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary was provided by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. We wish to also acknowledge all rangers of Thung Yai for their help and generosity during fieldwork. Thanks are also due to E. Chirngsaarrd and V. Panyaporn, the former superintendents, M. Kaengketkarn, chief assistant, and present superintendent, W. O-chakul. We are grateful to N. Seuaturien, T. Dawreung, A. Kamjing, and S. Tarawanaruk for their extensive assistance with fieldwork. We thank A.J. Lynam for comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript and Orien Richmond for kindly providing the R script for using the delta method and for coaching us on SIF calculations. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that improved the manuscript.

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  1. Conservation Ecology Program, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, 49 Thakham, Bangkhuntien, Bangkok, 10150, Thailand

    Wanlop Chutipong, Tommaso Savini & George A. Gale

  2. WWF Thailand, 92/2 Phaholyothin Road, Samsen Nai, Phyathai, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

    Robert Steinmetz

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  1. Wanlop Chutipong
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Correspondence to Wanlop Chutipong.

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This study was funded by the TRF/BIOTEC Special Program for Biodiversity Research and Training grant (BRT T351001 and BRT R353008), the National Science and Technology Development Agency (CMPO P-11-00592), WWF Thailand, the Rufford Small Grant for Nature Conservation (RSG 10504-1), and Office of the Thai Higher Education Commission (Strategic Scholarships Fellowships Frontier Research Networks).

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Communicated by: Hitoshi Suzuki

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Chutipong, W., Steinmetz, R., Savini, T. et al. Assessing resource and predator effects on habitat use of tropical small carnivores. Mamm Res 62, 21–36 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-016-0283-z

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