关键词: 时间生态位, 雪豹, 狼, 猞猁, 棕熊, 豺

Abstract: Large mammalian carnivores are at the top of the food chain and nutritional level, and they play an important role in maintaining the stability of ecosystem structure and function. Exploring the interspecific interaction and coexistence mechanism of large carnivores is of great significance to understanding how biotic communities assemble, species population dynamics, and endangered species conservation and management. In this study, we seleted the Yanchiwan National Nature Reserve in the west of Qilian Mountains, Gansu Province as our study area. We collected temporal data of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and their sympatric large carnivores from a camera-trapping survey in the alpine ecosystem and conducted kernel density estimation and coefficient of overlap to explore temporal niche differentiation. We found that the daily activity patterns of snow leopards showed a sub-peak and a peak at 04:00-08:00 and 16:00-20:00, respectively, indicating that snow leopards tended to be crepuscular. The sub-peak and the highest peak of the daily activity patterns of brown bears (Ursus arctos) are from 03:00 to 05:00 and from 19:00 to 21:00 respectively, which are more nocturnal. Dhole (Cuon alpinus) has the highest peak and sub-peak from 06:00 to 10:00, which are concentrated in the daytime and mainly active in the morning, making it a typical diurnal animal. The daily activity patterns of lynx(Lynx lynx) and wolf (Canis lupus) were both bimodal. The two activity peaks of lynx are 01:00-03:00 and 18:00-20:00, which are more nocturnal, while the two activity peaks of wolves are about 09:00-11:00 and 18:00-19:00, which are more diurnal. The overlap of daily activity patterns of snow leopard and wolf (Δ1=0. 70), snow leopard and lynx (Δ1=0. 78), and snow leopard and brown bear (Δ1=0. 82) were higher, while snow leopard and dhole (Δ1=0. 39) showed low overlap of daily activity pattern. The results preliminarily revealed the temporal niche relationship between the snow leopard and its sympatric large carnivores and, provide basic information for a further in-depth understanding of the coexistence mechanism of large carnivores in the alpine ecosystem.

Key words: Temporal niche, Snow leopard, Wolf, Lynx, Brown bear, Dhole