Amur tiger and leopard and their ungulate prey show differentiated spa-tiotemporal responses to human disturbances in the Northeast China Ti-ger and Leopard National Park
Amur tiger and leopard and their ungulate prey show differentiated spa-tiotemporal responses to human disturbances in the Northeast China Ti-ger and Leopard National Park
Human disturbances may disrupt carnivores coexistence in work landscapes,potentially triggering cascading influences in ecological communities.Responses in spatial and temporal behaviors to human activities can highlight spe-cies'survival strategies to maximize fitness.This study aims to quantify how human influences(e.g.,peoples,vehi-cles,domestic dogs and livestock)may reshape Northeast China wildlife behaviour and their consequences for temporal interactions of predate-prey.We used a large dataset of 9 409 independent animals(tiger Panthera tigris,leopard P.par-dus and their major ungulate prey)and human records from 23 831 camera nights at 107 camera trap sites in the North-east China Tiger and Leopard National Park,from which we assessed the role of human in structuring community-,guild-and species-level diel activity.We assessed the effects of human disturbances on wildlife behavior and compared temporal overlap among tigers,leopards and their ungulate prey,at sites of high and low disturbance,as determined by the human relative abundance index.Human detections corresponded to 66％of all detections at high-disturbance sites and 5％of all detections at low-disturbance sites.Tigers,leopards,and their main ungulate prey use different spatial and temporal strategies in response to human disturbances.At sites of high disturbance,nocturnal and crepuscular tigers sig-nificantly increased their activity,but significantly decreased overlap with the human's temporal niche to release from in-terference competition.For all species and large carnivores,there is a significant net effect of disturbance increasing noc-turnality.There is also high variation among species;specifically,disturbances drive significant shifts away from diurnal-ity for tigers,while roe deer Capreolus pygargus,and wild boars Sus scrofa become more diurnal.Compared to less dis-turbed forests,temporal overlap of top-predators and prey decreases in higher disturbed forests,notably among sika deer,wild boar and top-predators.This study provides insights into the responses of threatened large carnivores(tiger and leopard)to humans in a newly established national park.These differences in response to human disturbances among large carnivores and major prey highlighted the variation in temporal behaviors animals can use to exist in anthropogenic environments.Our findings can help in predicting how a species will respond to future change based on their current temporal behavior.
关键词
红外相机/活动节律/人-野生动物共存/捕食者-猎物相互作用/人类干扰
Key words
Camera trapping/Activity pattern/Human-wildlife coexistence/Predator-prey interactions/Human distur-bance
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