LINCE-IBÉRICO vs RAPOSA

Como é que a raposa tem reagido à presença de lince-ibérico desde que iniciaram as re-introduções no Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana? O lince-ibérico tem permitido o estabelecimento destes canídeos nos territórios ocupados? Estas e outras questões poderão ter, de certo modo, uma resposta através da leitura do artigo publicado online na Hystrix, intitulado: “Adapt or perish: how the Iberian lynx reintroduction affects fox abundance and behaviour”

Este trabalho é da autoria de dois técnicos do ICNF (Pedro Sarmento 1 e Carlos Carrapato 1) que laboram in loco com o lince-ibérico no terreno e de quatro investigadores do Departamento de Biologia e CESAM da Universidade de Aveiro (Victor Bandeira 2, Pedro Gomes 2, Catarina Eira 2 e Carlos Fonseca 2).

1 Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas. Centro Polivalente de Divulgação da Casa do Lanternim.

2 Departamento de Biologia and CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

Pedro Sarmento

Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas

✉ sarmentop@gmail.com

Adapt or perish: how the Iberian lynx reintroduction affects fox abundance and behaviour

ABSTRACT

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) reintroduction in the Guadiana valley (Portugal) began in 2015. By 2019 more than 100 lynxes were in the wild, dispersed over 300 km2 . The arrival of a new top predator (the lynx had been extinct from this region for decades) may have affected red fox populations (Vulpes vulpes) as a result of intraguild competition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the lynx reintroduction on the spatial, temporal and spatial-temporal dimensions of local fox abundance and behaviour. Camera trapping results revealed a clear decrease in fox abundance. Also, co-occurrence occupancy models indicated a higher probability of fox occupancy in areas where lynxes were absent, as well as a greater fox detectability in places where lynxes were absent, rather than in places where lynxes were present. In the temporal dimension, there were no significant effects on fox behaviour. However, the spatial-temporal dimension revealed a competitive exclusion since foxes avoided areas that had recently been used by lynxes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Jinpa Smith for the English revision.

FUNDING

This work was supported by the Life+ project “Recovery of the Historical Distribution for Iberian Lynx” (Lynx pardinus) in Spain and Portugal (LIFE10NAT/ES/570) co-funded by the European Commission. Thanks are due to Foundation of Science and Technology/Ministério da Ciência Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (FCT/ MCTES) for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020), through national funds and to the project Selectpredators financed by national and European funds.