Effect of anthropogenic activity on mammal activity patterns in two ecosystems

Abstract

Abstract Adaptations in species activity patterns allow animals to avoid risks generated by human activities and domestic and feral species. We aimed to evaluate the effect of anthropogenic activity on mammal activity patterns in two tropical ecosystems -semi-evergreen forest and cloud forest-, and its temporal variation in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico. We expected mammal activity patterns to show significant differences from activity patterns of humans and domestic species. From July 2014 to June 2015, we placed camera traps in 23 sites in a semi-evergreen forest and 23 sites in a cloud forest. We estimated the activity level of each species and calculated the activity overlap between wild species and humans and domestic species in each season. We recorded a total of 16 species of wild mammals, four domestic species, and obtained 738 human records. We found no evidence of an effect of anthropogenic activity on the activity patterns of wild mammals: we found similar activity levels between seasons and ecosystems, and moderate to high overlap between the activity patterns of some wild mammal species and of humans and domestic species. Low human population density, human activity temporal dynamics, and the plasticity of wild species could explain the results of our study.