Competition and coexistence among terrestrial mammalian carnivores

Abstract

Background & Aim: Carnivores play an important role in maintaining the structural and functional stability of ecosystems. Increasing anthropogenic pressure has resulted in dramatic population decline and habitat degradation of carnivores worldwide. Exploring regional coexistence mechanisms of carnivore populations is important to understand how mammal communities assemble, along with protecting and managing endangered species. This review summarizes the interactions of terrestrial carnivores along three dimensions (i.e., spatial, temporal and dietary), of their ecological niches, analyzing the influence of factors such as body size, prey composition, environmental difference, human disturbance and climate change on the coexistence of carnivores based on more than 100 related studies. Review Results: We put forward the problems to be addressed for current study of carnivore coexistence. This study demonstrates that there is no single theoretical explanation for carnivore coexistence through niche separation. Prey,