Mesopredators in forest edges

Luskin, Matthew Scott; Arnold, Lindsey; Sovie, Adia; Amir, Zachary; Chua, Marcus Aik Hwee; Dehaudt, Bastien; Dunn, Ashlea; Nursamsi, Ilyas; Moore, Jonathan H.; Mendes, Calebe P.

doi:10.1002/wll2.12023

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 81 publications

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“…For example, clouded leopards shift from nocturnal in intact forests towards peak activity near dawn within disturbed forests (0600 h; Supplementary Table 19), likely adapting to an altered prey base, and indeed their overlap with some pigs, macaques, and the great argus pheasants increase in disturbed areas (Supplementary Table 22) [42][43][44] . Likewise, leopard cats' shift from crepuscular to nocturnality has previously been reported to hunt nocturnal rodent crop pests in disturbed forest edges [45][46][47][48] . The increase in diurnal activity of medium-sized carnivores may be tracking more medium-sized omnivores in disturbed areas, or these animals may be responding to competitive release and niche partitioning to avoid larger competitors, which have a reduction in diurnality in disturbed areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

Lee,

Amir,

Moore

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Some animal species shift their activity towards increased nocturnality in disturbed habitats to avoid predominantly diurnal humans. This may alter diel overlap among species, a precondition to most predation and competition interactions that structure food webs. Here, using camera trap data from 10 tropical forest landscapes, we find that hyperdiverse Southeast Asian wildlife communities shift their peak activity from early mornings in intact habitats towards dawn and dusk in disturbed habitats (increased crepuscularity). Our results indicate that anthropogenic disturbances drive opposing behavioural adaptations based on rarity, size and feeding guild, with more nocturnality among the 59 rarer specialists’ species, more diurnality for medium-sized generalists, and less diurnality for larger hunted species. Species turnover also played a role in underpinning community- and guild-level responses, with disturbances associated with markedly more detections of diurnal generalists and their medium-sized diurnal predators. However, overlap among predator-prey or competitor guilds does not vary with disturbance, suggesting that net species interactions may be conserved.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

Lee,

Amir,

Moore

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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A multi‐scale synthesis of mousedeer habitat associations in Southeast Asia reveals declining abundance but few extirpations in fragments and edges

Mendes,

Liu,

Amir

et al. 2023

Austral Ecology

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Habitat loss and fragmentation profoundly impact Southeast Asian rainforest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. While many larger herbivores are hunted and area‐demanding apex predators are lost from degraded forests (logged forests, forest fragments and forest edges), smaller herbivore species may be comparatively resilient or even benefit from a release from competition and predation in degraded forests. Mousedeer (or chevrotains) in the Tragulus genus are some of the world's smallest ungulates (1.5–4.5 kg) and are widespread in Southeast Asia. We evaluated mousedeer habitat associations at three spatial scales. At the regional scale, presence‐only species distribution modelling suggested mousedeer are negatively associated with aridity and elevation. At the landscape scale, variation capture rates among 186 published camera trapping studies suggested mousedeer are negatively associated with forest degradation and elevation. At the local scale (within landscapes), mousedeer abundance sampled with 1218 cameras at 10 landscapes and analysed with hierarchical abundance modelling suggested mousedeer are negatively associated with humans and elevation. Mousedeer diel activity patterns shifted towards increased nocturnality in degraded forests, possibly to avoid interactions with diurnal humans. Taken together, mousedeer prefer wet lowland forests and they persist – but decline – in degraded habitats and near humans. One exception was degraded forest fragments of Singapore where mousedeer are very abundant, likely due to the absence of hunting and predators. Our results emphasize that small herbivores persisting in fragmented rainforests decline relative to intact forests and thus are unlikely to be experiencing significant release from competition or predation. They also differ from small omnivorous generalists who experience beneficial foraging opportunities at edges. In degraded forests where larger wildlife has been lost, even low densities of small herbivores may perpetuate important ecological interactions such as herbivory, seed dispersal, or as prey for remaining predators.

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Mesopredators in forest edges

Cited by 2 publications

References 81 publications

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

Effects of human disturbances on wildlife behaviour and consequences for predator-prey overlap in Southeast Asia

A multi‐scale synthesis of mousedeer habitat associations in Southeast Asia reveals declining abundance but few extirpations in fragments and edges

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