Coexistence and habitat use of the South American coati and the mountain coati along an elevational gradient

Daily activity pattern of pumas (Puma concolor) and their potential prey in a tropical cloud forest of Colombia

Ecosystems in the northern Andes face unprecedented habitat loss. Pumas are the top predators in the region and exert key ecological functions, such as population control and resource facilitation. However, little is known about the temporal niche of the species or its effects on behaviour of prey in the tropics. We hypothesized that there is a link between the activity patterns of pumas and their prey in a cloud forest of the Central Andes of Colombia. We installed 61 camera traps to estimate the degree of overlap between the daily activity curves of pumas and seven potential prey species, using conditional kernel density functions. Pumas, armadillos, mountain pacas, and white–eared opossums were mainly nocturnal, with little crepuscular activity and high temporal overlap. Central American agouti, mountain coati, little red brocket deer, and Cauca guan displayed a predominantly diurnal activity and temporal partitioning with pumas. As opportunistic predators, pumas were able to maximize foraging efficiency by preying on the crepuscular and nocturnal species. Conservation of this highland predator will largely depend on the suitable management of its native prey.

New records of mammals of the Coffee Region, Central Andes of Colombia using citizen science

The Coffee Region of Colombia is one of the most representative areas of the country due to its cultural appeal. 200 of the 528 mammal species in the country occur in this region. Pre-existing knowledge about the group in this region has been obtained through indirect and direct sampling methods. We present new records of mammals of the “Reserva Forestal Protectora Bosques de la Central Hidroeléctrica de Caldas (CHEC)”, located in the Coffee Region, based on vouchered citizen science records. To accomplish this, we held training workshops on the relevance of information provided by non-invasive vouchers for mammal collections that include bone remains, hairs, skin and other signs that can be found incidentally in the field by park rangers and other staff of the Reserve. In addition, we included photographic and video records of mammals taken by park rangers before and after the training workshops. We added vouchers obtained by the park rangers to the biological collection of the Natural History Museum of the Universidad de Caldas (MHN-UCa). Using this method, we obtained records of 34 mammalian species belonging to 20 families and 11 orders. We highlight the obtention of museum preserved vouchers of the Northern Naked-tailed Armadillo, Cabassous centralis (Miller 1899), and the Cauca Slender Opossum, Marmosops caucae (Thomas 1900), that had limited samples in national collections or had not been previously collected in the study area. With this work, a contribution network with the CHEC reserve staff was established, promoting the inclusion of these agents in the development of scientific research, and showing the relevance of collaborative science in assisting with filling information gaps about medium and large mammals.