Abstract
Human activities are changing ecosystems and their trophic structures across the globe and tropical forests are one of the main affected. Large carnivores can have a key role in the maintenance of biodiversity through direct and indirect effects at lower trophic levels, which are the result of predation and competition. In this sense, it is expected that changes in abundance of large predators driven by humans will affect the abundance of smaller carnivores. We explore the effects of varying degree of human intervention on the structure of a felid community of five sympatric species in Ecuador’s Amazon region. We used camera traps to survey carnivore populations in seven different areas between 2007 and 2016 and estimated density with spatial explicit capture–recapture models. The density of margays, jaguarundis, ocelots and jaguars showed a positive relationship with the conservation status of study sites, while no significant relationship was observed for pumas. We found that the anthropogenic impacts had asymmetric effects on the density of the different taxa. Jaguar and margays, the species with more stringent ecological requirements, presented higher reductions on density. Our findings support of the mesopredator release hypothesis in this tropical ecosystem. Maximum densities of pumas were detected in areas of low jaguar density, while there was a negative relationship between density of pumas and margays, jaguarundis, and ocelots. Our results show how human disturbance can have important ecological effects on the carnivore community. As felids are top predators, we can predict that changes in this trophic level can lead to changes in ecosystem function and structure. Therefore, conservation efforts should be addressed to maintain the structure of these communities.
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Data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: (URL to be added upon publication).
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Acknowledgements
This research was part of the project: “Conflictos entre gente y grandes carnívoros: evaluación de posibles soluciones en la Amazonía del Ecuador” supported by Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. We are especially grateful to the Waorani, Kichwa and Achuar communities in Yasuni and Sharamentsa who participated in this work and allowed us to work in their territories. Luis Borbor, Guido Almunia and Nilo Rio frío kindly helped during the field surveys in Tarapoa. We thank Santiago Burneo and Rommel Montúfar for their support of the Project. We are grateful to Jesus Rodriguez Osorio for providing us the fantastic drawings of wild felids included in our figures.
Funding
JMG. -S was supported by a Prometeo fellowship from the SENESCYT and the national agency for Education and Science of the Government of Ecuador.SE was supported by University of Florida, World Wildlife Fund Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera to conduct research in Yasuní.
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JMG-S and SE conceived, designed and performed the works. SE, JS and JMG_S carried out the field surveys. SE, JS, JMG-S, and MS-C analyzed the pictures. SE, JMG-S, MS-C and JJ analyzed the data and led the writing of the manuscript. JJ designed the SCR scripts for R. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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All fieldwork was approved by Ministerio del Ambiente del Ecuador and carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations for research activities within protected areas of Ecuador.
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Gil-Sánchez, J.M., Jiménez, J., Salvador, J. et al. Structure and inter-specific relationships of a felid community of the upper Amazonian basin under different scenarios of human impact. Mamm Biol 101, 639–652 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00149-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00149-8