Commercial plantations have been recognized worldwide as “green deserts” due to their low biological diversity. This fact is explained by the low availability of resources, which would result in a change in the interactions between species. While changes in occupancy among species in plantations have been documented, little is known about their species’ temporal ecology, as competitors, predators or prey. We studied the activity patterns of the mammals of Pinus radiata plantations. We used photo-trapping to explore their temporal patterns and the overlap among species. Five native and three exotic mammal species were detected, as well as humans. The broader temporal niche breadth was shown by pudu deer (a dwarf deer but still the largest native prey) and the domestic dog. While the temporal overlap was high among similar-sized species, they differed in their use of space. Among prey, birds were the most abundant, and their activity patterns were essentially diurnal. Ecological aspects of the species are discussed, both in relation to the temporal flexibility of the species and the structural complexity of the study area.

Free-ranging pet cats have been identified as significant predators of wildlife. Managing this conflict is challenging, because control of movement ultimately lies with the owner. Previous research has focused on the influence of environmental, intrinsic, husbandry-, and personality-related factors on cats’ behavior when stepping out the door. However, an overlooked driver is the strength of the cat–owner relationship. In this explorative study, we used animal-borne video cameras to document the outdoor behavior of 12 cats and in parallel assessed the relationship with their owners through the Cat–Owner Relationship Scale (CORS), along with intrinsic (age and sex) and husbandry-related (cat’s role, cat’s restriction and roaming pattern, parasite treatment, and provisioning households) determinants. We found no statistical evidence of a direct influence of the cat–owner relationship on exploratory and hunting behaviors, but owners with higher CORS scores observed more harassment incidents by their cats and owners reporting more hunting behavior tended to own cats that roamed more in nature; those cats also explored more. We further observed high individual variability in hunting and time allocated to urban and natural environments. Comparing our results with the previous literature, we conclude that outdoor behavior largely varies between individual cats and is difficult to predict. However, the greater awareness of cat–wildlife conflict among owners with stronger bonds may provide an opportunity to promote changes in owner behavior.

Diverse factors, including environmental features and cognitive processes, can drive animals' movements and space use, with far-reaching implications. For example, repeated use of individual-level travel routeways (directionally constrained but imperfectly aligned routes), which results in spatial concentration of activity, can shape encounter-based processes including predation, mate finding, and disease transmission. However, how much variation in routeway usage exists across species remains unknown. By analyzing GPS movement tracks for 1,239 range-resident mammalian carnivores-representing 16 canid and 18 felid species from six continents-we found strong evidence of a clade-level difference in species' reliance on repeatedly used travel routeways. Across the global dataset, tracked canids had a 15% (±7 CI) greater density of routeways within their home ranges than did felids, rising to 33% (±16 CI) greater in landscapes shared with tracked felids. Moreover, comparisons within species across landscapes revealed broadly similar home range routeway densities despite habitat differences. On average, canids also reused their travel routeways more intensively than did felids, with hunting strategies and spatial contexts also contributing to the intensity of routeway usage. Collectively, our results suggest that key aspects of carnivore routeway-usage have an evolutionary component. Striking interspecific and clade-level differences in carnivores' reliance on reused travel routeways within home ranges identify important ways in which the movement patterns of real-world predators depart from classical assumptions of predator-prey theory. Because such departures can drive key aspects of human-wildlife interactions and other encounter-based processes, continued investigations of the relationships between movement mechanisms and space use are critical.

The kodkod (Leopardus guigna) is a small felid dependent on forests. We studied the activity patterns of this felid during two years in a periurban protected area. We also compared its overlap with rodents and birds. During the first year, we detected it to be mainly nocturnal. In the second year, a non-significant diurnal activity was observed. During the first year overlap was higher with rodents, and lower with birds, but this reversed during the second year.

Woodpeckers are adept cavity excavators and various species, i.e., secondary cavity-users (SCUs), may depend on these cavities. Birds use specific habitat attributes to increase their likelihood of survival, but these attributes vary among cavity users. We examine the role of cavity provisioning by Magellanic Woodpeckers (Campephilus magellanicus, MAWO, 275-347 g), the largest woodpeckers in South America. From 2015-2017 on Navarino Island, Chile (55 degrees 4' 0.12 '' S, 67 degrees 40' 1.2 '' W), we (1) assessed SCU densities and richness; (2) compared assemblage cavity use between MAWO-excavated and non-excavated cavities; and (3) determined which habitat attributes influence cavity use by MAWOs and the SCU assemblage. We found 12 SCU species ranging from similar to 11-447 g; Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda, similar to 12 g) was the most abundant (i.e., 9.24 individuals/ha) and frequent SCU that used non-excavated cavities. Magellanic Woodpeckers selected taller and larger-diameter Nothofagus trees to excavate their cavities, which were placed higher off the ground and had wider cavity entrances compared to those used by SCUs. Of the used cavities, MAWOs provided a small proportion to the SCU assemblage in general. Specifically, small passerines rarely used cavities provided by this large woodpecker, matching findings elsewhere globally. However, their cavity provisioning may be an important resource for larger birds, particularly raptors and parakeets. Moreover, MAWOs may play a key part in other ecological roles, e.g., by providing foraging and oviposition sites for birds and insects, respectively, or by vectoring wood-decay fungi. Additionally, we found evidence that SCUs use MAWO-enlarged foraging holes as nesting cavities; therefore, MAWOs may provide an ecological service for the broader SCU assemblage, but via a different mechanism than simply cavity excavation. We suggest researchers determine if MAWO-provided cavities increase SCU fitness or reproductive success. Further, we suggest researchers check cavities to determine if they are internally excavated and provide accurate information on cavity use, particularly if management and conservation decisions are made based upon these data.

For migratory birds, events happening during any period of their annual cycle can have strong carry-over effects on the subsequent periods. The strength of carry-over effects between non-breeding and breeding grounds can be shaped by the degree of migratory connectivity: whether or not individuals that breed together also migrate and/or spend the non-breeding season together. We assessed the annual cycle of the White-crested Elaenia (Elaenia albiceps chilensis), the longest-distance migrant flycatcher within South America, which breeds in Patagonia and spends the non-breeding season as far north as Amazonia. Using light-level geolocators, we tracked the annual movements of elaenias breeding on southern Patagonia and compared it with movements of elaenias breeding in northern Patagonia (1,365 km north) using Movebank Repository data. We found that elaenias breeding in southern Patagonia successively used two separate non-breeding regions while in their Brazilian non-breeding grounds, as already found for elaenias breeding in the northern Patagonia site. Elaenias breeding in both northern and southern Patagonia also showed high spread in their non-breeding grounds, high non-breeding overlap among individuals from both breeding sites, and similar migration phenology, all of which suggests weak migratory connectivity for this species. Elucidating the annual cycle of this species, with particular emphasis on females and juveniles, still requires further research across a wide expanse of South America. This information will be critical to understanding and possibly predicting this species’ response to climate change and rapid land-use changes.

Background The Fuegian fox ( Lycalopex culpaeus ) is a rare inhabitant of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago on account of: (a) It is the southernmost Canid in the world. (b) It is the second largest, heaviest, and tallest native Canid in South America. (c) It is currently scarce in northern Tierra del Fuego. (d) It may have been tamed by the Selk’nam natives. Methods and results Based on chronicles and scientific reports we document the timeline since discovery of the distinctive and island-confined Fuegian fox. We pay attention to its patchwork distribution within the Fuegian archipelago, with populations spread on the large Tierra del Fuego Island (Fuegia) and on two smaller ones, Hoste and Gable. This fox seems to have disappeared recently from the latter and historic records from Navarino Island are dubious. We provide new distributional records and unpublished photographs. Among the socio-ecological aspects studied, we highlight the relationships of this fox with two local indigenous people: The Yahgan and the Selk´nam. Discussion The introduction of sheep Ovis aries in 1885 and the ensuing persecution of its putative predators apparently caused the fox decline from the northern half of Fuegia. The introduction of the continental Chilla fox Lycalopex griseus in 1951 further impacted the Fuegian fox, apparently by competition for food but perhaps also by diseases. It is currently concentrated in the southern half of Tierra del Fuego Island. The possibility that the Selk’nam introduced this fox from the mainland and that they tamed it, is also discussed.

Conservation strategies for huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), listed as an endangered cervid by IUCN, have not helped to reverse its declining population trends. Recent evaluations of historical data revealed that they also inhabited lower valleys and grasslands as residents or only during winter. However, the dogma persists that huemuls do not need such habitats. To determine if more solid evidence exists to back up or refute our hypothesis that huemuls once inhabited lower valleys and grasslands, we researched the literature and discovered additional relevant historical sources on this species. These new findings substantiate that huemuls also occupied unforested areas, reaching the Atlantic coast, and resided on various islands including Tierra del Fuego, and that their co-occurrence with guanaco was frequent. Their extreme naivety towards humans resulted in their extirpation on winter ranges settled by humans, resulting in refugee huemuls year-round on remote mountain summer ranges. The ease by which indigenous people could kill them for subsistence and commercial export of hides to Europe, followed by the lowlands becoming modified by settlers and their exotic species facilitated the huemuls’ extirpation. The hypothesis of a dramatic modification of the original biogeographical distribution of huemuls is supported by anatomical and ecological features along with historical accounts. Sedentariness on only rugged summer ranges makes long-term survival of this species crucially challenging and requires sound conservation strategies that incorporate geographical areas of their former distribution.

The huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) is endangered, with 1500 deer split into >100 subpopulations along 2000 km of the Andes. Currently occupied areas are claimed-erroneously-to be critical prime habitats. We analyzed historical spatiotemporal behavior since current patterns represent only a fraction of pre-Columbian ones. Given the limited knowledge, the first group (n = 6) in Argentina was radio-marked to examine spatial behavior. Historically, huemul resided year-round in winter ranges, while some migrated seasonally, some using grasslands >200 km east of their current presence, reaching the Atlantic. Moreover, huemul anatomy is adapted to open unforested habitats, also corroborated by spotless fawns. Extreme naivety towards humans resulted in early extirpation on many winter ranges—preferentially occupied by humans, resulting in refugee huemul on surrounding mountain summer ranges. Radio-marked huemul remained in small ranges with minimal altitudinal movements, as known from other subpopulations. However, these resident areas documented here are typical summer ranges as evidenced by past migrations, and current usage for livestock. The huemul is the only cervid known to use mountain summer ranges year-round in reaction to anthropogenic activities. Losing migratory traditions is a major threat, and may explain their presently prevalent skeletal diseases, reduced longevity, and lacking recolonizations for most remaining huemul subpopulations.

Free-ranging owned dogs are a conservation concern worldwide, but knowledge on their movement ecology is only recently increasing. To examine unsupervised dog movements into wilderness, we attached Global Positioning System devices to 33 village and four rural dogs on a sub-Antarctic island in Chile during the four seasons of a year (n = 86115 locations). This corresponded to a quarter of the local free-ranging dog population based on a photographic mark-recapture survey. The longest maximum distance to the owner's home was 20.4 km. The median home range size ranged between 15.8 (spring) and 24.4 ha (summer), but with great individual variation (1.6 ha 148.8 km(2)). Nine individuals had home ranges > 100 ha in at least one seasonal monitoring; seven individuals performed excursions spending 1-6 nights in pristine nature, and two individuals accompanied tourists on trekking trips lasting 3-6 days. Remarkably, village dogs were quite active at night (40.7% of the locations). Top-ranked habitats in the compositional analysis of habitat use of village dogs were forest and infrastructure. However, coasts were also important at second order and peatbog at third order habitat selection. Our study revealed a high temporal and spatial plasticity of dog movement in sub-Antarctic ecosystems, likely interacting with wildlife. We conclude that future research should address predictors of problematic animals, which have been treated as "outliers " in many studies. In Chile, the control of legislation and education beyond the mere owner should be improved wherever dogs occur near sensitive wilderness areas.

Managing wildlife populations in the face of global change requires regular data on the abundance and distribution of wild animals, but acquiring these over appropriate spatial scales in a sustainable way has proven challenging. Here we present the data from Snapshot USA 2020, a second annual national mammal survey of the USA. This project involved 152 scientists setting camera traps in a standardized protocol at 1485 locations across 103 arrays in 43 states for a total of 52,710 trap-nights of survey effort. Most (58) of these arrays were also sampled during the same months (September and October) in 2019, providing a direct comparison of animal populations in 2 years that includes data from both during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. All data were managed by the eMammal system, with all species identifications checked by at least two reviewers. In total, we recorded 117,415 detections of 78 species of wild mammals, 9236 detections of at least 43 species of birds, 15,851 detections of six domestic animals and 23,825 detections of humans or their vehicles. Spatial differences across arrays explained more variation in the relative abundance than temporal variation across years for all 38 species modeled, although there are examples of significant site-level differences among years for many species. Temporal results show how species allocate their time and can be used to study species interactions, including between humans and wildlife. These data provide a snapshot of the mammal community of the USA for 2020 and will be useful for exploring the drivers of spatial and temporal changes in relative abundance and distribution, and the impacts of species interactions on daily activity patterns. There are no copyright restrictions, and please cite this paper when using these data, or a subset of these data, for publication.

Dogs are the most abundant carnivores on earth and, as such, negatively impact wildlife. Free-ranging dogs roam in many protected areas, which in turn are often tourist destinations. Whether tourists influence their roaming is largely unexplored but highly relevant to wildlife conservation. To address this question, we obtained (i) 81 completed questionnaires from tourists on their experience with free-ranging dogs in the remote Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile, and (ii) photographs of three camera-traps placed next to trekking trails (n = 87 trap days). A third of the participants were followed by dogs for up to four days, and 39% saw free-ranging dogs on their hikes, but neither feeding dogs nor fear of them had any influence on whether tourists were followed by dogs. Camera-traps yielded 53 independent dog sequences, recorded 32 individuals plus 14 unidentified dogs, of which only one was leashed, with a frequency of one dog every 28th person. In 17% of 53 sequences, dogs were photographed together with hikers carrying large backpacks for several-day trips. We conclude that tourists are facilitators for the movement of dogs and highlight the importance of the engagement of the tourism sector in wildlife conservation in and close to protected areas.

Nest predation by invasive mammalian predators can cause major impacts on native bird populations. The American mink (Neovison vison) was recently introduced on Navarino Island in southern Chile. The mink established as a new terrestrial mesopredator on the island with documented impacts on waterfowl breeding success. However, little is known about mink effects on forest bird’s reproduction. Here, we investigated nest-predation rate by native predators and the invasive mink on open-cup nesting forest birds by using artificial and natural nests. In six different plots, we deployed a grid (7 x 2) of 14 artificial nests spaced by 50 m and at random heights from the ground. We used camera traps in each nest to identify predators. At each plot, we estimated predator relative abundance using camera traps, Sherman traps, and bird point counts. We estimated nest survival probability as a function of nest age, concealment, distance to the river, and nest height. Additionally, we monitored 43 natural nests of five open-cup nesting bird species. Contrary to expected, mink was not a main predator of nests, depredating only one natural nest. The native raptor Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango) was the main nest predator, preying on 39.8% artificial nests and 27.0% natural nests. We also found evidence that Chimango Caracara learned to associate the artificial nests with the egg reward. We argue that the lower abundance of mink in the forest and a mismatch between mink peak activity patterns and bird breeding phenology can result in low depredation. Mink impacts, however, may be more pervasive in summer months and on fledglings when mink activity peaks, and more research should be conducted to assess these questions. Our results are valuable to better understand mink impacts on biodiversity and to prioritize conservation actions on species more severely affected.

AbstractBirds are known to act as potential vectors for the exogenous dispersal of bryophyte diaspores. Given the totipotency of vegetative tissue of many bryophytes, birds could also contribute to endozoochorous bryophyte dispersal. Research has shown that fecal samples of the upland goose (Chloephaga picta) and white‐bellied seedsnipe (Attagis malouinus) contain bryophyte fragments. Although few fragments from bird feces have been known to regenerate, the evidence for the viability of diaspores following passage through the bird intestinal tract remains ambiguous. We evaluated the role of endozoochory in these same herbivorous and sympatric bird species in sub‐Antarctic Chile. We hypothesized that fragments of bryophyte gametophytes retrieved from their feces are viable and capable of regenerating new plant tissue. Eleven feces disk samples containing undetermined moss fragments from C. picta (N = 6) and A. malouinus (N = 5) and six moss fragment samples from wild‐collected mosses (Conostomum tetragonum, Syntrichia robusta, and Polytrichum strictum) were grown ex situ in peat soil and in vitro using a agar Gamborg medium. After 91 days, 20% of fragments from A. malouinus feces, 50% of fragments from C. picta feces, and 67% of propagules from wild mosses produced new growth. The fact that moss diaspores remained viable and can regenerate under experimental conditions following the passage through the intestinal tracts of these robust fliers and altitudinal and latitudinal migrants suggests that sub‐Antarctic birds might play a role in bryophyte dispersal. This relationship may have important implications in the way bryophytes disperse and colonize habitats facing climate change.

In the Northern Hemisphere, several avian cavity excavators (e.g., woodpeckers) orient their cavities increasingly toward the equator as latitude increases (i.e. farther north), and it is proposed that they do so to take advantage of incident solar radiation at their nests. If latitude is a key driver of cavity orientations globally, this pattern should extend to the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we test the prediction that cavities are oriented increasingly northward at higher (i.e. colder) latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere and describe the preferred entrance direction(s) of 1,501 cavities excavated by 25 avian species (n = 22 Picidae, 2 Trogonidae, 1 Furnariidae) across 12 terrestrial ecoregions (15 degrees S to 55 degrees S) in South America. We used Bayesian projected normal mixed-effects models for circular data to examine the influence of latitude, and potential confounding factors, on cavity orientation. Also, a probability model-selection procedure was used to simultaneously examine multiple orientation hypotheses in each ecoregion to explore underlying cavity-orientation patterns. Contrary to predictions, and patterns from the Northern Hemisphere, birds did not orient their cavities more toward the equator with increasing latitude, suggesting that latitude may not be an important underlying selective force shaping excavation behavior in South America. Moreover, unimodal cavity-entrance orientations were not frequent among the ecoregions analyzed (only in 4 ecoregions), whereas bimodal (in 5 ecoregions) or uniform (in 3 ecoregions) orientations were also present, although many of these patterns were not very clear. Our results highlight the need to include data from under-studied biotas and regions to improve inferences at macroecological scales. Furthermore, we suggest a re-analysis of Northern Hemisphere cavity orientation patterns using a multi-model approach, and a more comprehensive assessment of the role of environmental factors as drivers of cavity orientation at different spatial scales in both hemispheres.

In an increasingly anthropogenic world, native species face multiple interacting threats. Habitat fragmentation and domestic dogs are two such perturbations threatening terrestrial mammals globally. Here, we implemented a camera trap survey in the fragmented central valley/Andean foothills transition of the Los Lagos Region in Southern Chile to evaluate space use of native carnivores in a landscape comprised of patches of native forest amidst a matrix of pastureland. Using an occupancy modeling framework to account for imperfect detection, we examined the impacts of dogs and landscape metrics of fragmentation on three mesocarnivores – the foxes culpeo (Lycalopex culpaeus) and chilla (Lycalopex griseus) and the wild cat güiña (Leopardus guigna). Factors driving occupancy differed for each of the native species, while detection rates for both canid species increased with dog occupancy. We found that a small (12%) simulated increase in dog occupancy negatively impacted the spatial use of the culpeo. Habitat loss and fragmentation were positive drivers for the chilla and the dog, and indirectly impacted the culpeo through the domestic dog. The güiña did not respond to fragmentation and other habitat covariates or dog occupancy. Instead, all native carnivore species temporally partitioned diel activity with dogs. We highlight that the effects of dogs or fragmentation are not ubiquitous across the carnivore guild with varied tolerance. However, future conditions of increased fragmentation and habitat loss will likely increase the potential contact between domestic dogs and native carnivores.

Bryophyte consumption is uncommon among bird species globally and is often presumed incidental. We sought to determine whether herbivorous bird species of the high Andes, including the white-bellied seedsnipe (Attagis malouinus) and Chloephaga geese (C. picta and C. poliocephala), consume bryophytes, and if so, how frequently. We collected 26 seedsnipe and 22 goose droppings from alpine and sub-alpine habitats of Navarino Island, Chile and examined their contents for bryophyte diaspores. We detected bryophyte fragments in 84.6% and 90.9% of seedsnipe and Chloephaga goose faecal samples, respectively. We also extracted DNA from three bryophyte fragments isolated from goose droppings and sequenced three chloroplast loci for each sample. We inferred through a barcoding analysis that at least one species of Chloephaga goose consumes Polytrichum strictum and Notoligotrichum trichodon. The composition of 11 collected goose droppings was >50% Polytrichaceae bryophyte fragments, suggesting that at least one Chloephaga goose species foraged deliberately on moss species of this family. These new observations suggest that bryophytes are part of the diet of some high Andean birds and that birds might disperse bryophytes internally - via endozoochory - in the sub-Antarctic.

Abstract Predator-prey interactions often define the coexistence of species in space and time. In this research, we are filling a regional gap in knowledge of diet composition of the barn owl (Tyto...