Population density and habitat use of two sympatric small cats in a central Indian reserve
Published in PLOS ONE, 2020
Small cats are far more specialised than their larger relatives in how they use habitat, yet they are rarely surveyed — which makes it hard to say whether their populations are secure. This study used camera-trap captures from a central Indian tiger reserve to estimate the abundance of two widespread species, the jungle cat and the rusty-spotted cat, and to ask what separates them on the landscape.
The answer was habitat, and it was consistent: forest cover and evapotranspiration were positively associated with rusty-spotted cat occurrence, while both factors had a significant negative relationship with jungle cat occurrence. The two species segregate — the rusty-spotted cat in well-forested terrain, the jungle cat in open scrubland.
That division matters for management. A reserve managed for one small cat will not automatically hold the other, and density estimates of this kind give conservation planning something firmer than presence records to work with.
Recommended citation: Chatterjee, N., Nigam, P., & Habib, B. (2020). "Population density and habitat use of two sympatric small cats in a central Indian reserve." PLOS ONE, 15(6), e0233569.
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