Oral Presentation- Symposium 12th International Mammalogical Congress

It’s time to hit the road; temporal overlap of species using tracks (#277)

Stuart J Dawson 1 , Peter J Adams 1 , Katherine E Moseby 2 , Kris I Waddington 3 , Halina T Kobryn 1 , Philip W Bateman 4 , Patricia A Fleming 1
  1. Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  3. Buru Energy, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  4. Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Linear clearings, such as roads and tracks, are often the only obvious anthropogenic feature in many remote environments where infrastructure is sparse. When multiple species use such clearings for movement, their spatial and temporal patterns of use of these features can potentially influence the species interactions. Here, we used a paired camera trap array to investigate temporal patterns in the use of cleared seismic lines at four time points post clearing (1 mo, 3 mo, 7 mo, 48 mo) by five mammal species; bilbies (Macrotis lagotis), feral cats (Felis catus), dingoes (Canis lupus dingo), agile wallabies (Macropus agilis) and cattle (Bos indicus). Temporal overlap between bilbies and cats was 0.68 on seismic lines, and 0.55 in control areas. A similar relationship was seen between bilbies and dingoes (0.66 on seismic lines, and 0.33 in control areas). Temporal overlap between cats and dingoes was not different between treatments (0.73 on seismic lines and 0.68 in control areas). Feral cats, dingoes, and cattle used seismic lines at different times from control areas, whereas bilbies and agile wallabies showed similar activity times both on and off seismic lines. Our results indicate that linear clearings can significantly alter the activity of some species, which may in turn affect predator-prey, or predator-mesopredator relationships.