Search

Southeast Asia supports the greatest diversity of felids globally, but this diversity is threatened by the severe forest loss and degradation occurring in the region. The response of felids to disturbances appears to differ depending on their ecology. For example, the largely terrestrial and nocturnal leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) thrives near forest edges and in oil palm plantations where it hunts rodents (Muridae) at night, thereby avoiding human activity peaks. Conversely, we hypothesized that the sympatric and similar‐sized marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) would respond negatively to edges and relatively open oil palm plantations as they are more arboreal than leopard cats, rely on tree connectivity for hunting, and are diurnal so have less potential to temporally avoid humans. We used camera trapping from Southeast Asia to test habitat associations at multiple spatial scales using zero‐inflated Poisson generalized linear mixed models and hierarchical occupancy modeling. We found that marbled cats were positively associated with large intact forests and, in contrast to leopard cats, negatively associated with oil palm plantations. Furthermore, we found preliminary evidence suggesting marbled cats may adapt their diel activity to become more crepuscular in degraded forests, likely shifting their activity to avoid humans. These findings suggest that the marbled cat's International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List conservation status should potentially be upgraded from Near Threatened to Vulnerable, matching other forest‐dependent felids in the region. We posit our findings may be generalizable such that semi‐arboreal and diurnal felids could face greater threats from habitat degradation than their terrestrial and nocturnal relatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The squirrels (Sciuridae), with 292 species, make up the second most diverse family of rodents. Squirrels play important roles as seed and spore dispersers and seed predators in all regions where they occur. In Neotropical regions, around 28 species of squirrel are recognised. However, our knowledge of the ecology of the Neotropical Sciuridae is severely incomplete, lacking in the most basic ecological information for most species.We reviewed the literature in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, for all squirrel species in the Neotropical biogeographic region, summarising ecological interactions between squirrels and the local biota, population density records, the number of publications, and the distribution of study sites.We found information for 20 squirrel species (71% of the recognised species), from 15 countries, in 48 publications containing 126 population density records and 155 publications containing 649 ecological interactions. The most studied species were Guerlinguetus brasiliensis, Notosciurus granatensis, and Sciurus variegatoides, with 53% of all publications, whereas for eight species of Microsciurus, we found no publications. The density of Neotropical squirrels varied from 0.08 to 100 individuals per km2 and was negatively correlated with forest area.Neotropical squirrels were recorded eating 174 plant taxa, five fungus taxa, four invertebrate taxa, and one species of vertebrate. Palms were common in the diet of squirrels (30 palm species, 27% of feeding records). Squirrels cached 28 plant species, of which 15 were palms.Sixty‐five taxa of parasites are documented to occur in Neotropical squirrels, and the most common were Enderleinellus lice. Zoonotic parasites, including trypanosomes, Leptospira spp., Leishmania spp., and plague were also reported.Our review reveals the main information gaps in the current knowledge about the ecology of Neotropical Sciuridae and maps the geographic distribution of the available information throughout South and Central America. Squirrels often thrive in small forest fragments and fulfil important roles as seed dispersers and prey for mesopredators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queen palm seeds (Syagrus romanzoffiana) are a vital source of nutrients for Ingram's squirrel (Guerlinguetus ingrami), a common inhabitant of the Atlantic forest biome of Brazil. G. ingrami acts as both a seed predator and disperser of this important palm; however, little is known about how G. ingrami selects or efficiently opens queen palm seeds. The objectives of this study were to: (1) investigate the squirrel's capacity to determine the germinal orifice among the fruit's three pores, which permits more efficient opening of the fruit; (2) assess whether the thickness and size of the fruit endocarp influence the squirrel's palm selection during foraging; and (3) evaluate whether the rodents preferentially select fruits with invertebrate infestations. To answer these questions, we used a series of behavioral experiments measuring patterns of squirrel feeding behavior (fruit opening, fruit selection, and patch selection), controlling for environmental variables. We found that (1) squirrels identify the queen palm germinal pore by its greater relative depth to the other pores; (2) the average size and thickness of fruit does not influence the squirrel's choice of palm for foraging; and (3) squirrels preferentially consume fruits infested by invertebrates. The development of methods for more efficient processing of queen palm fruit highlights the importance of this resource for G. ingrami. In addition, due to its preferential selection of infested fruits, G. ingrami may benefit palms by reducing parasite population loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]