Temporal overlap among small- and medium-sized mammals in a grassland and a forest-alpine meadow of Central Asia

Assessing carnivores and prey temporal activity patterns as well as their overlap provides valuable insights into behavioural mitigations of competition. Moon phases may also play an important role in shaping wild mammals' activity rhythms with prey showing peaks of activity in darkest nights. Camera trapping has enriched the possibility to conduct systematic studies of activity patterns and temporal niche overlap on mammalian guilds. In this study, we used camera traps to investigate intra-guild interactions and temporal partitioning among three meso-carnivores and their common prey in two Mongolian areas characterized, respectively, by a grassland and a forest-alpine meadow. We detected a moderate-high interspecific overlap in red foxes, pikas and tolai hares. We found a moderate overlap of temporal activity patterns among nocturnal carnivores as well as among nocturnal prey species. Interestingly, we observed a moderate overlap between hares and meso-carnivores. Amongst nocturnal species, the red fox and the stoat had a peak in activity in the brightest nights, the stone marten and the Mongolian silver vole preferred to range in dark nights, whereas activity of the tolai hare was not dependent on moon phases. Our work provides some first insights of temporal pattern interactions within a small- and meso-mammal assemblage in Central Asia. Our results indicate that meso-carnivores and their potential prey can co-occur in Central Mongolia by means of temporal partitioning.

Automated summary

The study highlights the importance of assessing temporal activity patterns and overlap between carnivores and prey to understand competition behaviors. Moon phases can impact wild mammals' activity rhythms, with prey showing peaks in darkest nights. Camera trapping enables systematic studies of activity patterns and temporal niche overlap in mammalian guilds, with findings suggesting that meso-carnivores and potential prey can coexist in Central Mongolia through temporal partitioning.