Güiña (Leopardus guigna) preys on cavity-nesting nestlings

Mesocarnivores respond to fine-grain habitat structure in a mosaic landscape comprised by commercial forest plantations in southern Chile

“…An increased multi-strata vegetation and shrub cover are closely correlated with the abundance of food resources for small mammals and birds in southern temperate forests (Kelt, 2000;Saavedra and Simonetti, 2005;Vergara and Armesto, 2008), and may compel these small carnivores to intensively use areas with dense understory (Gorini et al, 2012). In addition, the availability of arboreal small mammals is higher in areas with a more complex habitat structure (Fontúrbel and Jiménez, 2009;Fontúrbel, 2010), favouring the arboreal hunting behavior of kodkod (Altamirano et al, 2013;Sanderson et al, 2002). On the other hand, areas containing dense vegetation might provide additional anti-predatory refuge for species such as Darwin's fox as this small carnivore has been documented to be preyed by cougar in Nahuelbuta Mountain Range (McMahon, unpublished data).…”

Native forest replacement by exotic plantations triggers changes in prey selection of mesocarnivores

“…Kodkod cat may be naturally good at climbing trees (Sanderson et al, 2002), which would make them more successful when hunting prey that move within overstory or large-trees (e.g. Altamirano et al, 2013). Therefore, the simplification of arboreal-vegetation structure arising from the replacement of native forests by exotic plantations could negatively impact kodkod cat by reducing the abundance of their preferred prey (e.g., arboreal small mammals) as well as reducing their effectiveness for capturing prey using arboreal strata.…”

Breeding strategies of open-cup-nesting birds in sub-Antarctic forests of Navarino Island, Chile

“…The study site in La Araucanía Region is also within the temperate forests of southern South America. Unlike Navarino Island, this region is inhabited by several ground predators of bird nests including carnivores and reptiles [2,20,21,32,33]. As part of a different study in La Araucanía Region, nests of T. falcklandii were located by adult behavior (i.e., individuals exhibiting breeding behavior were followed).…”

“…Therefore, forest avifauna has evolved free of this predation pressure, leaving diurnal and nocturnal raptors as the top predators in this ecosystem. This creates an opportunity to investigate how birds have responded to the lack of ground predation pressure as compared to northern mainland populations where they evolved with a myriad of predators [20,21].…”