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Competition And Intraguild Predation Among Three Sympatric Carnivores, Jose M. Fedriani, Todd K. Fuller, Raymond M. Sauvajot, Eric C. York

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

We examined the relative roles of dominance in agonistic interactions and energetic constraints related to body size in determining local abundances of coyotes (Canis latrans, 8–20 kg), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus, 3–5 kg) and bobcats (Felis rufus, 5–15 kg) at three study sites (hereafter referred to as NP, CP, and SP) in the Santa Monica Mountains of California. We hypothesized that the largest and behaviorally dominant species, the coyote, would exploit a wider range of resources (i.e., a higher number of habitat and/or food types) and, consequently, would occur in higher density than the other two carnivores. We evaluated our …