Abstract
Understanding the trophic structure of carnivore communities leads to improved species management and conservation, particularly in highly threatened, yet scarcely studied habitats such as tropical montane forests. Using camera-trap data, we conducted an occupancy modeling study to reveal the patterns of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) occupancy in the edge habitat between two different land tenures and tested the influence of prey occupancy on this mesopredator. The occupancy probability for ocelots did not present any habitat preferences based on the covariates used for modeling. Conversely, the landscape variables that best described the occupancy of prey included vegetation structure, land tenure, distance to roads, and to a lesser degree, anthropogenic factors (human and dogs). Ocelot site occupancy was low (0.23 ± 0.21) and only showed a strong positive association with the presence of the Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata). Ocelots exhibited a higher coefficient of overlap with prey species that were nocturnal. The Central American agouti exhibited the highest occupancy (0.83 ± 0.07), while the spotted paca (Cuniculus paca) exhibited the lowest occupancy (0.21 ± 0.09). In our study, the structural elements of the habitat coupled with prey availability emerged as the most important features in predicting the occupancy of ocelots, stressing the ecological importance of landscape structure (buffer and transition zones) for the persistence of the ocelot occurring across a natural–anthropogenic interface.
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Availability of data and material
The datasets associated with this work are not publicly available due to the sensitivity of the data which partially comes from the Narganá District of the Indigenous Guna Yala territory in Panama. The data may be made available for scientific use upon request, to be determined on a case by case basis.
Code availability
All analyses were performed in R Studio 3.4.0 (R Core Team 2016). The R code is available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Andreas Wilting (IZW) for his input on the statistical analysis. We are grateful to our Panamanian field assistants, especially Polo Acosta and Gabriel Salazar for their hard work and dedication. Volunteers Lidia Amico, Ruben Palate, and Evan Shanbrom for their assistance in data collection. Robert Vogt for creating the study area map for the manuscript, Pierre Gras (IZW) for his assistance in acquiring GIS and satellite imagery information, and Aimara Planillo (IZW) for general advice on the models’ construction. We thank the Leibniz Institute for Wildlife Research in Berlin and its personnel for their assistance. We also thank Anthony Giordano for providing camera traps and advice at the commencement of the study. We are grateful to the Mamoní Valley Preserve, Cocobolo Preserve, Congreso General Guna, and the Ministry of Environment of Panama (MiAmbiente) for the permits to perform the research.
Funding
This project was funded by Kaminando Habitat Connectivity Initiative (Kaminando) thanks to the generous support of the Mamoní Valley Preserve, Shanbrom Family Foundation, and Panthera. Partial financial support was granted from the PROMOS funding program to AM.
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Field data collection and experimental design were performed by MY and KC. Data analysis was performed by AMM-S, JFA and SK-S. All authors contributed to the manuscript editing and approved the final version.
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Moreno-Sosa, A.M., Yacelga, M., Craighead, K.A. et al. Can prey occupancy act as a surrogate for mesopredator occupancy? A case study of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis). Mamm Biol 102, 163–175 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00232-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00232-8