Spatiotemporal overlap among sympatric Pallas’s cat (<i>Otocolobus manul</i>), Tibetan fox (<i>Vulpes ferrilata</i>) and red fox (<i>V. vulpes</i>) in the source region of the Yangtze River

Abstract

Aim: Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul), Tibetan fox (Vulpes ferrilata) and red fox (V. vulpes) are small sympatric carnivores inhabiting the Sanjiangyuan region on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The spatiotemporal overlaps between these species were analyzed in this study. Methods: From June 2014 to September 2019, we set up 208 infrared cameras along the Tuotuo River and the Tongtian River in the source region of the Yangtze River to collect the daily activity rhythm and spatial distribution data of three carnivores. The spatial overlap coefficient was used to evaluate spatial niche differentiation and the kernel density estimation method was utilized to evaluate daily activity rhythm. Then, the overlap coefficient of rhythms was applied to analyze the temporal niche differentiation among the three carnivores.