Determinantes ecológicos de la ocupación del tigrillo andino (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides) en bosques de niebla de la cuenca media del Río Cauca, Colombia

Abstract

Mesocarnivores play an important role in structuring communities and maintaining biodiversity as they are regulators of population growth. The habitat use of small felids is affected by human disturbance, co-occurrence with intraguild prey and predators, and microhabitat and landscape structure. Understanding the effect of these variables is essential to implement viable conservation plans for threatened species such as the Andean tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus pardinoides). An 18-month sampling with 53 camera trap stations was carried out to evaluate the main determinants in the Andean tiger cat occupancy over three protected areas from the middle Cauca River Basin in Colombia. Occupancy of the Andean tiger cat increased with litter depth and distance from population centers, it also increased with the presence of prey but was not affected by its intraguild conspecifics. To implement viable conservation actions on the species, it will be necessary to consider the importance of the microhabitat structure, human disturbance and prey co-occurrence as determinant factors of its occupancy. Finally, it will be crucial to determine in the future whether the observed trends can be sustained beyond the boundaries of protected areas.