Temporal and dietary segregation in a neotropical small-felid assemblage and its relation to prey activity

Mechanisms that decrease niche overlap in at least one of its dimensions (i.e., spatial, temporal, or dietary) tend to facilitate coexistence of similar, sympatric species. We investigated whether temporal or dietary segregation plays a significant role in the coexistence of Neotropical small felids. In addition, we examined the role of prey activity in shaping their time use. We compared the activity and diet of four felids (oncilla - Leopardus gutullus, margay - L. wiedii, jaguarundi - Puma yagouaroundi, and ocelot - L. pardalis) using camera trapping and scat surveys (45 sampling sites) in an Atlantic Forest remnant (35,000 ha) in Brazil. Ocelot, margay, and oncilla seem to be generalists and, overall, they consumed mammalian prey species of distinct sizes. As a consequence, we found moderate dietary overlap between all pairs of felids and low between ocelot and the other species. Oncilla and margay seem to be cathemeral, jaguarundi diurnal, and ocelot nocturnal, which resulted in low to moderate temporal overlap between them, potentially decreasing interspecific encounters. Predator-prey temporal overlap seems to be moderate for oncilla, margay, and jaguarundi, but high for ocelot. Our results suggest that time partitioning associated with dietary differences contribute to the coexistence of this Neotropical small-felid assemblage, and that prey activity is a factor shaping their activity pattern, especially for ocelot9518COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPnão temnão te

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data