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Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia

Mesocarnivores play a key role in ecosystem dynamics through the regulation of prey populations and are sensitive to environmental changes; thus, they are often considered good model organisms for conservation planning. However, data regarding the factors that influence the habitat use of threatened...

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Autores principales: Cepeda-Duque, Juan Camilo, Andrade-Ponce, Gabriel, Montes-Rojas, Andrés, Rendón-Jaramillo, Uriel, López-Velasco, Valentina, Arango-Correa, Eduven, López-Barrera, Álex, Mazariegos, Luis, Lizcano, D. Diego, Link, Andrés, de Oliveira, Tadeu Gomes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10332582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37428730
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288247
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author Cepeda-Duque, Juan Camilo
Andrade-Ponce, Gabriel
Montes-Rojas, Andrés
Rendón-Jaramillo, Uriel
López-Velasco, Valentina
Arango-Correa, Eduven
López-Barrera, Álex
Mazariegos, Luis
Lizcano, D. Diego
Link, Andrés
de Oliveira, Tadeu Gomes
author_facet Cepeda-Duque, Juan Camilo
Andrade-Ponce, Gabriel
Montes-Rojas, Andrés
Rendón-Jaramillo, Uriel
López-Velasco, Valentina
Arango-Correa, Eduven
López-Barrera, Álex
Mazariegos, Luis
Lizcano, D. Diego
Link, Andrés
de Oliveira, Tadeu Gomes
author_sort Cepeda-Duque, Juan Camilo
collection PubMed
description Mesocarnivores play a key role in ecosystem dynamics through the regulation of prey populations and are sensitive to environmental changes; thus, they are often considered good model organisms for conservation planning. However, data regarding the factors that influence the habitat use of threatened small wild felids such as the Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) are scarce. We conducted a two-year survey with 58 camera trap stations to evaluate the determinants of Andean tiger cat habitat use in three protected areas in the Middle Cauca, Colombia. We developed site occupancy models and found that Andean tiger cat habitat use increased with leaf litter depth at intermediate elevations and far from human settlements. Through conditional cooccurrence models, we found that Andean tiger cat habitat use was invariant to the presence of prey or potential intraguild competitors and killers/predators, but its detectability increased when they were present and detected. This suggests that Andean tiger cats may be more likely to be detected in sites with high prey availability. We found that Andean tiger cats preferred sites with deep leaf litter, which is a particular feature of cloud forests that provides suitable conditions for ambush hunting and hiding from intraguild enemies. Our results showed that Andean tiger cats avoided human settlements, which may minimize potential mortality risks in those areas. Moreover, the restricted use of middle elevations by Andean tiger cats suggested that they could be used as a sentinel species to track the effects of climate change since their suitable habitat is likely to be projected upward in elevation. Future conservation actions must be focused on identifying and mitigating human-related threats close to the Andean tiger cat habitat while preserving microhabitat conditions and the existing networks of protected areas.
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spelling pubmed-103325822023-07-11 Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia Cepeda-Duque, Juan Camilo Andrade-Ponce, Gabriel Montes-Rojas, Andrés Rendón-Jaramillo, Uriel López-Velasco, Valentina Arango-Correa, Eduven López-Barrera, Álex Mazariegos, Luis Lizcano, D. Diego Link, Andrés de Oliveira, Tadeu Gomes PLoS One Research Article Mesocarnivores play a key role in ecosystem dynamics through the regulation of prey populations and are sensitive to environmental changes; thus, they are often considered good model organisms for conservation planning. However, data regarding the factors that influence the habitat use of threatened small wild felids such as the Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) are scarce. We conducted a two-year survey with 58 camera trap stations to evaluate the determinants of Andean tiger cat habitat use in three protected areas in the Middle Cauca, Colombia. We developed site occupancy models and found that Andean tiger cat habitat use increased with leaf litter depth at intermediate elevations and far from human settlements. Through conditional cooccurrence models, we found that Andean tiger cat habitat use was invariant to the presence of prey or potential intraguild competitors and killers/predators, but its detectability increased when they were present and detected. This suggests that Andean tiger cats may be more likely to be detected in sites with high prey availability. We found that Andean tiger cats preferred sites with deep leaf litter, which is a particular feature of cloud forests that provides suitable conditions for ambush hunting and hiding from intraguild enemies. Our results showed that Andean tiger cats avoided human settlements, which may minimize potential mortality risks in those areas. Moreover, the restricted use of middle elevations by Andean tiger cats suggested that they could be used as a sentinel species to track the effects of climate change since their suitable habitat is likely to be projected upward in elevation. Future conservation actions must be focused on identifying and mitigating human-related threats close to the Andean tiger cat habitat while preserving microhabitat conditions and the existing networks of protected areas. Public Library of Science 2023-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10332582/ /pubmed/37428730 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288247 Text en © 2023 Cepeda-Duque et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cepeda-Duque, Juan Camilo
Andrade-Ponce, Gabriel
Montes-Rojas, Andrés
Rendón-Jaramillo, Uriel
López-Velasco, Valentina
Arango-Correa, Eduven
López-Barrera, Álex
Mazariegos, Luis
Lizcano, D. Diego
Link, Andrés
de Oliveira, Tadeu Gomes
Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia
title Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia
title_full Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia
title_fullStr Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia
title_full_unstemmed Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia
title_short Assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern Colombia
title_sort assessing microhabitat, landscape features and intraguild relationships in the occupancy of the enigmatic and threatened andean tiger cat (leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) in the cloud forests of northwestern colombia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10332582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37428730
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288247
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