Habitat loss and fragmentation are affecting populations of forest dwelling mammalian carnivores worldwide. In southern Chile, a biodiversity hotspot, anthropogenic activities have resulted in high loss of native forest cover. The guiña, or kodkod cat, Leopardus guigna is a small forest-dwelling felid with a narrow range in the temperate forest of southern Chile. The few existing studies of the species have suggested that it is almost exclusively restricted to large tracts of native forest. This paper reports a study in the temperate forest within a fragmented Andean piedmont landscape which demonstrates that smaller forest fragments in the farmland matrix are playing a key role in the persistence of the guiña. We estimated occupancy in both continuous native forest and remnant forest fragments and, with single-species/single-season models, evaluated the extent to which forest cover, habitat type and proximity to protected areas have a modulating effect on occupancy. A continuous survey during 2008-2009, in three seasons of 90-100 days each, accumulated 6,200 camera trap days and returned 47 photographs of guiña. Total detection in fragments was higher than in continuous forests, with detection confirmed in almost 70% of studied fragments. We found that probability of a site being occupied significantly increased with forest cover (adult/secondary forest, scrubland) and probability was low (, 0.2) in sites with , 50% of surrounding forest cover. Our study highlights the importance of remnant forest fragments in the mosaic of extensive agriculture for the spatial dynamics of a guiña population and hence for the future conservation of the species.

BackgroundThe Chilean temperate rainforest has been subjected to dramatic fragmentation for agriculture and forestry exploitation. Carnivore species are particularly affected by fragmentation and the resulting resource use conflicts with humans. This study aimed at understanding values and human-animal relationships with negatively perceived threatened carnivores through the disclosure of local stories and Mapuche traditional folktales.MethodsOur mixed approach comprised the qualitative analysis of 112 stories on the kodkod cat (Leopardus guigna) and the puma (Puma concolor) collected by students (9-14 years) from 28 schools in the Araucania region within their family contexts, 10 qualitative in-depth interviews with indigenous Mapuche people, 35 traditional Mapuche legends, and the significance of naming found in ethnographic collections.ResultsWe revealed a quasi-extinction of traditional tales in the current knowledge pool about pumas and kodkods, local anecdotes, however, were present in significant numbers. Values associated to both felids were manifold, ranging from negativistic to positive values. While pumas played an important role in people’s spirituality, negative mythological connotations persisted in kodkod stories. Four prominent relationships were derived: (1) Both felids represent threats to livestock, pumas even to life, (2) both felids are symbols for upcoming negative events, (3) pumas are spiritual creatures, and (4) kodkods are threatened by humans. Recommendations are provided for stimulating new ways of perceiving unpopular and threatened carnivores among those who live in vicinity to them.

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20Camera-traps are increasingly used to survey threatened mammal species and are an important 21 tool for estimating habitat occupancy. To date, cost-efficient occupancy survey effort allocation 22 studies have focused on trade-offs between number of sample units (SUs) and sampling 23 occasions, with simplistic accounts of associated costs which do not reflect camera-trap survey 24 realities. Here we examine camera-trap survey costs as a function of the number of SUs, survey 25 duration and camera-traps per SU, linking costs to precision in occupancy estimation. We 26 evaluate survey effort trade-offs for hypothetical species representing different levels of 27 occupancy ( ) and detection (p) probability to identify optimal design strategies. We apply our 28 cost function to three threatened species as worked examples. Additionally, we use an extensive 29 camera-trap data set to evaluate independence between multiple camera traps per SU. The 30 optimal number of sampling occasions that result in minimum cost decrease as detection 31 probability increases, irrespective of whether the species is rare ( <0.25) or common ( >0.5). 32The most expensive survey scenarios occur for elusive (p <0.25)