Intraspecific, interspecific, and seasonal differences in the diet of three mid-sized carnivores in a large neotropical wetland

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• 作者：Rita de Cassia Bianchi (1)
  Renata Calixto Campos (2)
  Nilson Lino Xavier-Filho (3)
  Natalie Olifiers (4)
  Matthew E. Gompper (5)
  Guilherme Mour?o (6)
  
• 关键词：Cerdocyon thous ; Frugivory ; Intersexual competition ; Leopardus pardalis ; Nasua nasua
• 刊名：Acta Theriologica
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：January 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：59
• 期：1
• 页码：13-23
• 全文大小：330 KB
• 作者单位：Rita de Cassia Bianchi (1)
  Renata Calixto Campos (2)
  Nilson Lino Xavier-Filho (3)
  Natalie Olifiers (4)
  Matthew E. Gompper (5)
  Guilherme Mour?o (6)
  
  1. Departamento de Biologia Aplicada à Agropecuária, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho- Jaboticabal, 14884-900, SP, Brazil
  2. Laboratório de Ecologia Terrestre Animal, UFSC, 88040-900, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
  3. Departamento de Ciências do Ambiente, UFMS, Corumbá, 79304-902, MS, Brazil
  4. Laboratório de Biologia e Parasitologia de Mamíferos Silvestres Reservatórios, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Funda??o Oswaldo Cruz, Av. Brasil, 4365 Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, 21040-900 RJ, Brazil
  5. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211-7240, USA
  6. Laboratório de Fauna Silvestre, Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Pantanal, Embrapa/Pantanal, Rua 21 de Setembro, 1880, Corumbá, MS, 79320-900, Brazil
  
• ISSN：2190-3743

文摘

The diet and partitioning of food resources among mid-sized mammalian carnivores is poorly known, especially in the tropics. We evaluated the resource partitioning between Leopardus pardalis (ocelot), Cerdocyon thous (crab-eating fox), and Nasua nasua (brown-nosed coati) in the Pantanal of Brazil. Between December 2005 and February 2008, we collected data necessary to better understand interspecific, intraspecific, and seasonal variability in diet. Food habits were assessed by analysis of feces (n--93) collected from known individuals (n--28), and differences in dietary composition were evaluated through nonmetric dimensional scaling using the Jaccard similarity index. The main diet differences were observed between the specialist ocelot and the more generalist crab-eating fox and brown-nosed coati. Crab-eating foxes and brown-nosed coatis preyed on arthropods, fruits, and vertebrates whereas ocelots preyed almost entirely on vertebrates, mainly rodents and snakes. Ocelots-consumption of snakes was the highest ever recorded, as was the extent of carnivory by brown-nosed coatis. For the crab-eating fox and the brown-nosed coati, there were large differences between the use of fruits and animal foods in the wet and dry season. Yet for both species there were no significant differences in the diets of males and females. Despite the conspicuous sexual dimorphism and spatial segregation that are typical of brown-nosed coatis, the results do not support the hypothesis that size dimorphism is primarily an adaptation to reduce intersexual competition for food. Rather, dimorphisms and patterns of space use may be more related to competition among males for access to females.