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Patterns of species co-occurrence in a diverse Eastern Himalayan montane carnivore community

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A Correction to this article was published on 12 January 2022

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Abstract

We investigated patterns of species richness and co-occurrence in a montane carnivore community within a forested landscape in Bhutan that ranged in altitude from 2000 to 3760 m above sea level, and covered an area of approximately 140 km2. Species were detected by unbaited camera traps set along animal trails and baited camera traps set away from trails. During the 6-month study, we gathered 1,329 independent mammal events from 67 camera-trap locations, of which, 145 (10.9%) were of 13 different carnivore species from five different families. Four carnivores were IUCN red-listed threatened species: tiger (Panthera tigris), marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata), dhole (Cuon alpinus), and Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus). For most camera stations where carnivores were detected, only a single carnivore species was captured on camera and there was evidence of temporal partitioning of activity between large (tiger and leopard, Panthera pardus) and small (marbled cat, golden cat Catopuma temminckii, and leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis) felids, and between two common mustelids, the Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica) and yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula). Furthermore, we detected significant non-random spatial co-occurrence for most pairwise comparisons of carnivores despite the short timeframe of our study. This, combined with temporal patterns in activity, facilitates localized species co-occurrence in a diverse montane carnivore community.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to sincerely acknowledge the survey team members from Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park (Dorji Duba, Yeshi Wangdi, Rinchen Dorji, Sangay Tshewang, Kado Rinchen, Dhanapati, Tshering, and Sonam Rinchen) for their utmost dedication and hard work in assisting with much of the data collection, and the Department of Forests and Park Services for granting approval to undertake this work. We also thank the University of New England, Royal Government of Bhutan, and WWF Bhutan Program for funding. Dr. Joseph Veech and Dr. Nicolas Gotelli provided advice on some of the analyses, for which, we are most grateful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecosystem Management, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    Karl Vernes & Sangay Dorji

  2. Geography & Planning, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    Rajanathan Rajaratnam

  3. Department of Forests and Park Services, Thimphu, Bhutan

    Sangay Dorji

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  1. Karl Vernes
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  2. Rajanathan Rajaratnam
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Correspondence to Karl Vernes.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The co-author’s surname the letter “i” was missing. The name should been Sangay Dorji instead of Sangay Dorj.

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Vernes, K., Rajaratnam, R. & Dorji, S. Patterns of species co-occurrence in a diverse Eastern Himalayan montane carnivore community. Mamm Res 67, 139–149 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-021-00605-3

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