Spatiotemporal interactions of a novel mesocarnivore community in an urban environment before and during SARS‐CoV‐2 lockdown

1. Studying species interactions and niche segregation under human
pressure provides important insights into species adaptation, community
functioning and ecosystem stability. Due to their high plasticity in
behaviour and diet, urban mesocarnivores are ideal species for studying
community assembly in novel communities. 2. We analysed the spatial and
temporal species interactions of an urban mesocarnivore community composed
of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the marten (Martes sp.) as native
species, the raccoon (Procyon lotor) as invasive species, and the cat
(Felis catus) as a domestic species in combination with human disturbance
modulated by the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown effect that happened while the study
was conducted. 3. We analysed camera-trap data and applied a joint species
distribution model to understand not only the environmental variables
influencing the detection of mesocarnivores and their use intensity of
environmental features but also the species’ co-occurrences while
accounting for environmental variables. We then assessed whether they
displayed temporal niche partitioning based on activity analyses, and
finally analysed at a smaller temporal scale the time of delay after the
detection of another focal species. 4. We found that species were more
often detected and displayed a higher use intensity in gardens during the
SARS-CoV-2 lockdown period, while showing a shorter temporal delay during
the same period, meaning a high human-induced spatio-temporal overlap. All
three wild species spatially co-occurred within the urban area, with a
positive response of raccoons to cats in detection and use intensity,
whereas foxes showed a negative trend towards cats. When assessing the
temporal partitioning, we found that all wild species showed overlapping
nocturnal activities. All species displayed temporal segregation based on
temporal delay. According to the temporal delay analyses, cats were the
species avoided the most by all wild species. To conclude, we found that
although the wild species were positively associated in space, the
avoidance occurred at a smaller temporal scale, and human pressure in
addition led to high spatio-temporal overlap. 5. Our study sheds light to
the complex patterns underlying the interactions in a mesocarnivore
community both spatially and temporally, and the exacerbated effect of
human pressure on community dynamics.