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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Diel activity pattern of meso-carnivores in the suburban tropical dry evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, India Kangaraj Muthamizh Selvan, Bawa Mothilal Krishnakumar, Pasiyappazham Ramasamy & Thangadurai Thinesh 26 June 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 8 | Pages: 13960–13966 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4850.11.8.13960-13966 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2019 | 11(8): 13960–13966 Diel activity pattern of meso-carnivores in the suburban Communication tropical dry evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, India ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) Kangaraj Muthamizh Selvan 1 , Bawa Mothilal Krishnakumar 2 , ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Pasiyappazham Ramasamy 3 & Thangadurai Thinesh 4 PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS 1 Project Elephant, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi 110003, India. 2 Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University, R.V. Nagar, Kalapet, Puducherry 605014, India. 3,4 Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University, R.V. Nagar, Kalapet, Puducherry 605014, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author), 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] Abstract: Sympatric and similar body-sized species exhibit interspecifc competton for resources. The present study investgated diel actvity of fve meso-carnivore species (Canis aureus, Felis chaus, Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, Viverricula indica, and Herpestes edwardsii) in a human-dominated region of Auroville and around Pondicherry University using camera-trap survey data. Diel actvity patern and overlap were estmated using the kernel density method. The Jungle Cat Felis chaus and the Golden Jackal Canis aureus exhibited cathemeral diel actvity with a high overlap between them (Δ̂1 = 0.78). The Indian Grey Mongoose Herpestes edwardsii displayed a diurnal actvity patern and had low overlap with the Small Indian Civet Viverricula indica (Δ̂1 = 0.34). Moderate overlap was found between the Small Indian Civet and the Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (Δ̂1 = 0.32). Therefore, diel actvity paterns of mesocarnivores indicate inter- and intra-specifc trade-of competton avoidance resultng in successful foraging. The present camera-trap survey has provided insights into diel actvity paterns and more atenton is required to be paid to the study of feeding and breeding ecology of these species in human-dominated landscapes. Keywords: Camera trap, competton avoidance, diurnal, nocturnal, overlap. DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4850.11.8.13960-13966 Editor: Mewa Singh, University of Mysore, Mysuru, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #4850 | Received 25 January 2019 | Final received 28 May 2019 | Finally accepted 05 June 2019 Citaton: Selvan, K.M., B.M. Krishnakumar, P. Ramasamy & T. Thinesh (2019). Diel actvity patern of meso-carnivores in the suburban tropical dry evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(8): 13960–13966. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4850.11.8.13960-13966 Copyright: © Selvan et al. 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Dr. Kanagaraj Muthamizh Selvan graduated from Bharathidasan University in MSc Wildlife Biology, He then Joined Wildlife Insttute of India, there he had been working on large sympatric carnivore at Pakke Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh. He holds PhD in Wildlife Science from the Saurashtra University of Gujarat. Presently he is a Scientst D’ cum joint Director at Project Elephant Cell, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, New Delhi. B.M. Krishnakumar had been working as Junior Research Fellow under DST-INSPIRE Project in Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Pondicherry University. Presently he is PhD Scholar in the department of post-graduaton in Wildlife Biology, A.V.C. College (Afliated to Bharathidasan University). Dr. P. Ramasamy is an UGC-Post- Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Microbiology School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University. Dr. T. Thinesh is Kothari Post-Doctoral Researcher, in Department of Microbiology School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University. Author contributon: Conceptualisaton: K. Muthamizh Selvan. Analysis, manuscript writng, reviews and editng: B.M. Krishnakumar and K. Muthamizh Selvan. Data collecton: All. Acknowledgements: The corresponding author is grateful to all volunteers (Ravi, Jothiprakash, Charles, Christopher Jeyakumar, Karthick Prabu); to Charles, Ashok and Ravi for their help in R code to analyze temporal actvity overlap. We are grateful for the comments of the editors and the three reviewers, which greatly improved this manuscript. 13960 Diel actvity patern of meso-carnivores Selvan et al. INTRODUCTION at high human actvity (Majumder et al. 2011). The present study is the frst one to document actvites of Interspecifc competton among carnivores is one meso-carnivores in a tropical dry evergreen forest. The of the signifcant factors which regulate the natural fndings of the study will help the managers to strategize populaton and therefore determine community the management and conservaton plan for these meso- diversity (Cruz et al. 2018). Interspecifc competton is carnivores in highly fragmented human-dominated greatly recognized when competng species are similar landscapes. in eco-morphology or phylogenetc-proximity and diet adaptatons (Morin 1999). A successful species has to Study area forage optmally, fnd a potental mate, reduce rivals with We conducted this study in an area of 18km2 that conspecifcs and avoid encounter with predators (Ross et covers Auroville and its adjacent agricultural lands al. 2013). The dominant species may exclude subordinate (belonging to Vanur Taluk of Villupuram District, Tamil species from their territory through competton (Polis Nadu) and Arana Forest, Pondicherry University campus et al. 1989). The subordinate species usually are in Puducherry (Fig 1). The vegetaton of this region has displaced to suboptmal habitats, which are less fertle been classifed as tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) environments, or have the high impact of anthropogenic (Champion & Seth 1968). TDEF is distributed along the pressures (Steinmetz et al. 2013). In this kind of situaton, coasts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Nellore District of coexistence may be facilitated by temporal shif (Case & Andhra Pradesh (Daniel et al. 2007). It also occurs inland, Gilpin 1974; Carothers & Jaksic’ 1984). ranging between 30km and 60km (Gamble 1967) of the A mammalian carnivore is ecologically important as southeastern seaboard of peninsular India (Champion it directly infuences the structure and functon of an 1936). Manilkara hexandra, Memecylon spp., Diospyros ecosystem (Roemer et al. 2009). Though carnivore guilds sp., Eugenia spp., Chloroxylon sweitenia, and Albizzia are wide, small- to medium-sized mammalian carnivores amara (Daniel et al. 2007) are some of the dominant with less than 15kg body weight are collectvely called tree species in TDEF, in additon to other species such meso-carnivores (Buskirk 1999; Roemer et al. 2009). as Anacardium occidental, Acacia auriculiformis, and The meso-carnivores occurring in forest fragments and A. mangium. TDEF is populated with a range of birds, disturbed habitats may also serve as indicator species mammals, reptles, fungi and other taxa, some of which for environmental change (Justna 2000). In India, larger play a pivotal role in seed dispersal, pollinaton and carnivores have received more research and conservaton other supportng services (Everard 2018). The major atenton than meso or smaller carnivores (Kalle et mammalian species are Golden Jackal, Jungle Cat, al. 2013). Here we report the diel actvity paterns Common Palm Civet, Small Indian Civet, and the