Small-scale alterations in carnivore activity patterns close to motorways

Assessing arrays of multiple trail cameras to detect North American mammals

“…Fisher especially had higher probability of detection for methods located on average farther from the access route, suggesting that researchers should avoid only placing sites close to roadways despite the logistic ease. Similar findings were recently shown in European carnivores [54], suggesting that some, though not all, species avoid close proximity to roadways and that placing survey sites at a range of distances will increase the efficacy of results when working in a multi-species system.…”

Habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic factors affect wildcat Felis silvestris silvestris occupancy and detectability on Mt Etna

“…from detection to retrieval or to last photo taken in case the camera malfunctioned): wildcat detections can decrease along with an increase in the effort if a trap-shy response occurs (Wegge et al 2004); 3) array (a categorical factor created for each array of traps (1-7)): given that we used seven non simultaneous arrays, we expected that all parameters of interest for the detection process could also vary by arrays, hence this detection covariate was acting as a 'random site effect' (Harihar and Pandav 2012, Tan et al 2017, Penjor et al 2018; 4) distanceMR (the straight-line distance between each camera and the closest major paved road): wildcat detections might decrease for those cameras located closer to the major roads. Indeed, it has been shown that wildcat ranging behaviour is seriously affected by the presence of such human structures (Klar et al 2009, Mata et al 2017, Planillo et al 2018; 5) RAIh (the sum of all events with humans such as bikers, hikers, forest workers and mushroom collectors): wildcat detections can be negatively influenced by persistent use of the trails by humans (Piñeiro et al 2012). Ecological covariates to model wildcat occupancy (ψ) ( Table 1) were derived from the land map 'Nature map of the Sicilian region' at the scale of 1:50 000 created in 2008 with a resolution of 1 ha.…”

Do Roads Alter the Trophic Behavior of the Mesocarnivore Community Living Close to Them?

“…Furthermore, small mammals are a key dietary component in our study area because alternative prey such as lagomorphs occur only at low densities (unpublished data), such that any reduction in small mammal consumption is compensated for by small increases in all other available food types in areas more distant from the road. The results thus suggest that the predator community reacts very locally to the trophic offer associated with the road both by altering trophic behavior in response to small mammal abundance nearby and by altering foraging patterns (this study) and use of space (see below, [34]).…”

“…Such use of the motorway may be as much determined by its traffic volume as by the availability of roadside habitat [67]. The intensive use by carnivores of the roadside zone in our study area [34] may reflect the availability of suitable habitat, the abundance of trophic resources and the relatively low traffic volume (8,396 vehicles per day, SE 233), which reduces the likelihood of avoidance behavior or any general negative effect on the predator community (predator release effect, [15,25,68]). It may also be that juveniles or other subordinate carnivore individuals are displaced towards roads by dominants, as implied by the nonbreeding status of coyotes (Canis latrans) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) whose home ranges include motorways [69].…”

“…They also allow trophic availability and resource distribution in space and time to be analyzed [33]. Given that within our study area small mammals have been shown to be more abundant near the road [21] and that local carnivore activity is also altered [34], our starting hypothesis was that distance from the road will have a significant effect on carnivore trophic behavior. Specifically, we expected that the local carnivore diet close to the road would be enriched in small mammals, reflecting the functional responses derived from the changes in predator and prey density and activity.…”