Seasonal variation of daily activity rhythm of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) and their potential prey in Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve of Henan Province, China

doi:10.17520/biods.2022263

Abstract

Abstract:

Aim: The daily activity rhythm of wild animals is an adaptive response to food availability, predation risk, and environmental constraints. Therefore, elucidating the driving factors of daily activity rhythms are crucial in understanding wildlife fitness and conservation. Knowledge about the daily activity rhythms of most wild animals is rudimentary and occasionally inaccurate due to limited sampling and anthropogenic environmental changes. Leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis)—formerly believed to be nocturnal—are found to have some diurnal activity, along with their primary crepuscular activity. This illustrates the necessity of investigating how daily activity rhythm in wild animals, such as leopard cats, changes over time and space.
Methods: During 2016, we deployed 55 infrared-triggered cameras to monitor leopard cats and their potential prey in the Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve, Henan Province. We compared daily activity patterns by employing a kernel density estimation and using overlap coefficient to quantify the temporal overlap between leopards cat and their potential prey across warm and cold seasons.
Results: We identified 1,343 independent images of leopard cats and their potential prey over 14,972 camera trapping days. We found leopard cats, Tolai hares (Lepus tolai), and nocturnal rats mainly active at night, with the leopard cat’s activity peaking at dusk and dawn. Conversely, Pallas’s squirrels (Callosciurus erythraeus), Pere David’s rock squirrels (Sciurotamias davidianus), golden pheasants (Chrysolophus pictus) and koklass pheasants (Pucrasia macrolopha) were all diurnal. More diurnal activity of leopard cats and their potential prey (except nocturnal rats) occurred during warm seasons. Overlap analysis showed that leopard cats had a higher overlap coefficient with Tolai hares and nocturnal rats across warm and cold seasons (Δ ≥ 0.50) than with any diurnal prey (Δ ≤ 0.40).
Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that daily activity rhythm for leopard cats and their potential prey may be relatively conserved, but with some seasonal plasticity. This plasticity may be caused by seasonal variation in environment and prey distribution. Our results indicate that broad-scale monitoring and research are essential to elucidate the causes and seasonal variations in daily activity rhythms of wild animals.

Key words: leopard cat, predator-prey interactions, daily activity rhythm, seasonal variation, camera trapping technology

Xueqin Deng, Tong Liu, Tianshi Liu, Kai Xu, Song Yao, Xiaoqun Huang, Zhishu Xiao. Seasonal variation of daily activity rhythm of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) and their potential prey in Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve of Henan Province, China[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2022, 30(9): 22263.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2022263

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2022/V30/I9/22263

Figures/Tables 4

Fig. 1 Distribution of camera trapping sites in the Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve of Henan Province

Table 1 Summary of the camera trapping survey and typical activity rhythm of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) and their potential prey in the Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve of Henan Province, China

物种 Species	目 Order	节律 Activity rhythm	相对多度指数 Relative abundance index (独立有效照片数 Independent photos)		位点占有率 Site occupancy (位点数 Sites)
物种 Species	目 Order	节律 Activity rhythm	暖季 Warm season	冷季 Cold season	暖季 Warm season	冷季 Cold season
豹猫 Prionailurus bengalensis	食肉目 Carnivora	夜行性 Nocturnal	0.56 (41)	0.22 (17)	18.60% (8)	31.71% (13)
赤腹松鼠 Callosciurus erythraeus	啮齿目 Rodentia	昼行性 Diurnal	0.50 (37)	0.95 (72)	34.88% (15)	21.95% (9)
岩松鼠 Sciurotamias davidianus	啮齿目 Rodentia	昼行性 Diurnal	5.51 (407)	0.97 (74)	53.49% (23)	56.10% (23)
红腹锦鸡 Chrysolophus pictus	鸡形目 Galliformes	昼行性 Diurnal	1.95 (144)	0.30 (23)	13.95% (6)	41.46% (17)
勺鸡 Pucrasia macrolopha	鸡形目 Galliformes	昼行性 Diurnal	1.06 (78)	1.11 (84)	46.51% (20)	58.54% (24)
蒙古兔 Lepus tolai	兔形目 Lagomorpha	夜行性 Nocturnal	0.88 (65)	1.62 (123)	53.49% (23)	29.27% (12)
鼠类 Rats	啮齿目 Rodentia	夜行性 Nocturnal	1.79 (132)	0.61 (46)	32.56% (14)	34.15% (14)

Fig. 2 Daily activity pattern of leopard cat and its potential prey in cold (dashed line) and warm (solid line) seasons in the Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve of Henan Province in 2016. The vertical dashed and solid lines indicate the sunrise and sunset times in the cold and warm seasons, respectively. The overlap coefficient (Δ1) is the area under the minimum of the two kernel density estimates (denoted in grey).

Fig. 3 Comparisons of diel activity rhythm between leopard cats (solid line) and their potential prey (dashed line) in warm (A) and cold (B) seasons in the Neixiang Baotianman National Nature Reserve of Henan Province. The vertical lines indicate the sunrise and sunset times. The overlap coefficient (Δ1) is the area under the minimum of the two kernal density estimates (denoted in grey).

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