Vol. 60, 2021

(update: 2021.07.07; 09.16)
 

Threats to Site Occupation of Carnivores: A Spatiotemporal Encroachment of Non-native Species on the Native Carnivore Community in A Human-dominated Protected Area

Kasereka Vitekere¹, Luc Mumbere Lango², Jiao Wang¹, Mengyan Zhu¹, Guangshun Jiang^1,*, and Yan Hua^3,*

¹Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Natural Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, 150040, P.R. China. *Correspondence: E-mail: jgshun@126.com (Jiang).
E-mail: kasvitekere@hotmail.fr (Vitekere); wj15765526221@163.com (Wang)
²Research Center for Environmental Planning, Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. E-mail: luclango@yahoo.fr (Lango)
³Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Protection and Utilization, Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou 510520, China. *Correspondence: E-mail: wildlife530@hotmail.com (Hua)
⁴University of Goma, Faculty of Sciences, Goma, North-Kivu, 204, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Received 4 January 2021 / Accepted 6 June 2021
Communicated by Jian-Nan Liu

Interspecific interactions of commensal non-native species such as domestic dogs and livestock with native wildlife are evident issues in protected areas (PAs). We studied spatiotemporal interactions by combining camera trap photographic sampling over three years. We used a generic multiseason occupancy and co-occurrence analysis and kernel density estimates of temporal activity. We accumulated a total of 1,305 and 1,557 independent photo-captures respectively for non-native and carnivore species during 26,216 trap nights. We found that non-native and carnivore species did not show substantial changes in occupancy rate over time. Yet both kinds of species were frequently detected. Carnivores had lower values of occupancy equilibrium than non-native species in seasons one and two. Domestic dogs directly occurred with native carnivores (except with leopards in season one), while the human and livestock presence displayed direct (Species Interaction Factors > 1) and indirect (Species Interaction Factors close to 1) cooccurrence, respectively, with the leopard and two mesocarnivores. The leopard cat was the least spatially influenced carnivore by the non-native species interactions. Furthermore, the leopard had higher temporal overlap (high Δ₄) with all non-native species than the leopard cat and red fox (low Δ₄). Our study exposes the negative impact of free-ranging non-native species across this protected area on native carnivore occupancy. An evaluation of the interconnections among non-native and carnivore species across diverse PA management regimes is crucial to develop robust landscape-scale conservation strategies.

Key words: Conservation and management, Non-native and carnivore species, Overlap, Protected area, Spatiotemporal patterns.

Citation: Vitekere K, Lango LM, Wang J, Zhu M, Jiang G, Hua Y. 2021. Threats to site occupation of carnivores: a spatiotemporal encroachment of non-native species on the native carnivore community in a human-dominated protected area. Zool Stud 60:52. doi:10.6620/ZS.2021.60-52.