Abstract
Free-ranging domestic dogs are the world most common exotic carnivore species that could negatively interact with the native wildlife as predators, competitors, and disease vectors. Their generalist habits have allowed them to be present in a large number of urban parks, which are the habitat for wild mammal species, some of these animals are restricted to these areas. Moreover, dogs can perform activities alone or in a group during day and night time, having a wide temporal niche. However, the issues related to activity patterns overlap and temporal niche breadth between dogs and wild mammals in urban parks are still poorly known and have not been studied in deep. In this investigation, we evaluated the activity patterns, the temporal niche breadth, and the activity patterns overlap between medium-sized wild mammals (MSWM) and dogs using trap cameras in five urban parks in Xalapa, Veracruz. Mexico. During March to August 2014, there were taken 928 photo-captures of MSWM and dogs (720 trap nights). The activity patterns of MSWM were bimodal (two activity peaks), being more active during night time. MSWM showed low temporal niche breadth versus dogs. Five species of MSWM overlap their activity patterns with dogs in five urban parks. Didelphis marsupialis and Urocyon cinereoargenteus were the species with the greatest overlap regarding dogs, finding some individuals of this species lifeless in the studied sites. Our results show the need to perform studies that assess the effect of this temporal overlap on the biology, behavior, and permanence of these species in urban parks.
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Acknowledgements
The National Council for Science and Technology awarded a postgraduate scholarship (175058) to the first author. The Secretaria de Medio Ambiente del Estado de Veracruz (SEDEMA) and the Subdirección de Medio Ambiente de Xalapa who allowed the use of urban natural parks. We thank the members of the Laboratory of Functional Ecology of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota-Colombia for their collaboration and contributions.
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Mella-Méndez, I., Flores-Peredo, R., Pérez-Torres, J. et al. Activity patterns and temporal niche partitioning of dogs and medium-sized wild mammals in urban parks of Xalapa, Mexico. Urban Ecosyst 22, 1061–1070 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00878-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00878-2