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Habitat requirements and differential abundance of the culpeo (Lycalopex culpaeus) in the high Andes of southern Ecuador

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Abstract

Basic information on culpeos’ ecology for vast regions of its range is lacking. A model was built explaining the differential abundance of culpeos in the high Ecuadorian Andes. This model considered several environmental variables and is the first approach to evaluate the culpeo’s habitat requirements in Ecuador. Fixed 1-km transects were established along paths in the highest areas of Podocarpus National Park. Here, a culpeo abundance index (AI) was calculated monthly for each transect during a year. The AI was derived from the occurrence frequency of scats, and genetic analyses were performed to confirm scat identifications. Environmental variables (e.g., climate, vegetation cover, environmental richness, and diversity) were measured at two spatial scales (microhabitat and landscape). Predictors were grouped into orthogonal factors, and general linear models (GLM) were obtained by applying a selection method of models. The results show that the highest culpeo abundances were associated with well-preserved homogeneous areas that had high levels of rainfall and extreme temperatures, with these features being characteristic of pure “paramo” at the highest altitudes. In addition, a strong positive relationship was also found with the abundance of the mountain tapir. It is suggested that the subspecies of culpeo inhabiting this region could be particularly adapted to the ecological conditions of paramo areas. If so, habitat fragmentation and ongoing changes in land use, as well as climate change, could be potential threats for the culpeo both in the study area and the entire Ecuadorian high-Andean ecosystem.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because they still are being used for further analyses and manuscripts, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Santiago Burneo and María Alejandra Camacho of the Museum of Zoology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (QCAZ), for their help and contribution to the study of the culpeo’s ecology in southern Ecuador, as well as Marco Salazar, César Cartuche, David del Pozo, Diego Ochoa, and Jorge Armijos for their crucial help during the field surveys. We express our gratitude to the Regional Ministry of Environment No. 7 in Loja for facilitating the research permits and to the rangers for helping us with the logistics and fieldwork. Lisette Waits (University of Idaho, USA) also helped us with performing the genetic analyses. Two anonymous referees improved the original manuscript with their comments.

Funding

This research was carried out with the economic support of the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Ecuador. Jorge Lozano was supported by a Prometeo Fellowship from SENESCYT, the National Agency for Education, and Science of the Government of Ecuador. He was also supported by Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany) and Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) during the editing of this paper.

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  1. Marta Guntiñas and Jorge Lozano contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto, C/París s/n., 1101608, Loja, Ecuador

    Marta Guntiñas, Rodrigo Cisneros, Carlos Narváez & Daniela Arias

  2. ESCET, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/Tulipán s/n, 28933, Móstoles, Spain

    Marta Guntiñas & Rodrigo Cisneros

  3. Unidad de Ecología, Departamento de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, C/ José Antonio Novais 12, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Jorge Lozano

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Guntiñas, M., Lozano, J., Cisneros, R. et al. Habitat requirements and differential abundance of the culpeo (Lycalopex culpaeus) in the high Andes of southern Ecuador. Eur J Wildl Res 65, 18 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-019-1255-9

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