Diet of two sympatric carnivores, Cerdocyon thous and Procyon cancrivorus, in a restinga area of Espirito Santo State, Brazil

Abstract

The crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous (Linnaeus, 1766)) and the raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus (Cuvier, 1798)) are medium-sized nocturnal carnivores (3–8 kg) belonging, respectively, to families Canidae and Procyonidae (Berta 1982, Langguth 1975, Yanosky & Mercolli 1993). Both are widely distributed over the Neotropical Region (Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and the greater part of Brazil) (Berta 1982, Brady 1979, Langguth 1975, Santos & Hartz 1999), being sympatric over most of their range. In Brazil both species are found in various different habitats, including the coastal plains (restingas) (Berta 1987, Langguth 1975, Motta-Junior et al. 1994, Novaes 2002, Santos & Hartz 1999, Wang & Sampaio 2001).

Trophic relationships of sympatric small carnivores in fragmented landscapes of southern Brazil: niche overlap and potential for competition

“…The crab-eating raccoon had a diet very different from the other species, with the lowest consumption of mammals, as also found elsewhere (Santos and Hartz 1999, Gatti et al 2006, Pellanda et al 2010. For this reason, the species is alone in a guild with the smallest mean overlap in feeding habits.…”

Assessment of Cerdocyon thous distribution in an agricultural mosaic, southeastern Brazil

“…They could even survive in very small patches because they can also utilize resources in their surroundings (Andrén 1994). Therefore, because most of the diet of sympatric carnivores such as Cerdocyon thous, Lycalopex vetulus (hoary fox), Procyon cancrivorus (raccoon) and Chrysocyon brachyurus (maned wolves) overlap (Juarez and Marinho-Filho 2002, Bueno and Motta-Junior 2004, Jácomo et al 2004, Gatti et al 2006b), ecological segregation, resource competition and partitioning should be investigated in anthropogenic landscapes. The higher frequency of records in sugar cane and also the high suitability of this land use for the species occurrence (as revealed by the Maxent model) is probably related to prey availability.…”

Fragment edge and isolation affect the food web: effects on the strength of interactions among trophic guilds

“…We classified the owls as medium-sized predators, because they mostly eat small mammals, and occasionally other vertebrates and/or insects (Amaral 2007). Furthermore, they respond very well to playback of conspecific vocalisations (Galeotti and Pavan 1993). Playback sequences consisted of a 1 min of vocalisation, followed by a 2 min interval of silence, and then a repeat of the playback if an owl responded so as to identify the species with higher certainty (Johnson et al 1981).…”

“…We divided the species into two classes based on prey weight consumption: medium-(typically weighing o 1 kg) and large (mostly 1 to 10 kg) (Konecny 1989, Costa et al 2004, Gatti et al 2006, Moreno et al 2006, Azevedo & Murray 2007. To assess the frequency of type I or type II errors in the interviews, local informants were asked to identify which species were present in the patch from a selection of mammal pictures, including species known not to occur in the study area as a negative control.…”