Ravines as conservation strongholds for small wildcats under pressure from free-ranging dogs and cats in Mediterranean landscapes of Chile

ABSTRACT

The Chilean Mediterranean ecosystem is threatened by anthropogenic pressures, such as habitat loss by intensive agriculture and urban sprawl. Abandoned dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and cats (Felis silvestris catus) pose conservation challenges for Chilean wildlife including the pampas cat (Leopardus colocolo) and the güiña (Leopardus guigna). We used camera trap data to investigate influences of natural and anthropogenic landscape features on spatiotemporal trends of these species. We also used co-occurrence modeling and kernel density estimation to investigate spatial and temporal patterns overlap of wildcats, free-ranging (FR) dogs, and FR-cats. FR-dogs showed the highest detection and site use probabilities, while güiñas had the lowest across 80 camera trap sites. Top models showed no spatial avoidance between species and co-occurrence of wildcats was positively influenced by forest habitat. However, FR-dogs negatively affected detection of wildcats. Ravines surrounded by forest positively influenced güiña and pampas cat detection probabilities when dominant species were not present. FR-dogs and wildcats had significantly different temporal activity patterns and low overlap coefficients, while wildcats and FR-cats showed high overlap in activity patterns. We suggest changing current policies to control domestic animals and strategic planning in agricultural areas of central Chile to better conserve native wildcat species.

KEYWORDS:

• Mediterranean ecosystems
• Leopardus colocolo
• Leopardus guigna
• free-ranging dogs and cats
• activity patterns
• two-species occupancy models

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Forestry and Wildlife Services of Chile (CONAF-SAG) for permits and support at various stages of this work. Thanks to Jean Francois Casale for his support in map design. We give thanks to the landowners who form part of this Biosphere Reserve, students and volunteers for fieldwork and all members of the Fauna Australis Wildlife Laboratory.

Author contributions

E.B, C.B and N.G, conceived and designed this study; E.B conducted fieldwork and collected data; E.B, N.G, C.O and D.M, performed the statistical analyses. E.B, N.G, C.O, M.J.K, D.M and C.B assisted in interpretation and wrote the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Funding

This research was funded by the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development, FONDECYT Project N° Scientific and Technological Development, FONDECYT Project N°11209699 ‘Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [11209699] Assessing the impact of free ranging dogs (Canis familiaris): The occurrence of feralization and its implications to livestock and wildlife.’ The researchers were also supported by Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research Grants: ANID Master and Doctoral Grants of E. Beltrami, C. Osorio and N. Galvez; Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [11209699].