Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Theresa Nogeire | | Title | Carnivores in the farmland matrix: Use of avocado orchards depends on neighboring land use types | | Affiliation | University of California Santa Barbara | | Authors | Theresa Nogeire, Frank Davis, John Orrock | | Keywords | Agriculture, Carnivores, Edge, Habitat selection, Mesopredator | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Conservation of wide-ranging species is increasingly difficult as more and more land throughout the world is dominated by human activities. Researchers have shown that remnants of native habitat embedded within the agricultural matrix can support mammalian carnivores. Farmland can be useful for movement, human-dominated lands can be incorporated into home ranges, and, especially for omnivores like coyotes and bears, crops can provide food subsidies. Human-dominated landscapes can no longer be regarded simply as an unfriendly matrix surrounding islands of native habitat, but rather, as a special type of habitat for some species. Avocado orchards are an important land use in southern California and avocados are a food resource for many omnivores, including coyote, bear, and gray fox. The orchards are also used by bobcats. But agricultural landscapes present dangers for these animals including exposure to roads and vehicles and exposure to poisons such as rodenticides. Using remotely triggered cameras and scat surveys, we surveyed carnivore activity in several avocado orchards in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. We also recorded indices of rodent and avocado abundance. Using digital land use/land cover data we characterized the extent and configuration of natural, farm, and urban lands around surveyed sites. Rodent abundance and diversity are lower in orchards than in native vegetation. There is more carnivore activity in agricultural landscapes than in wildlands, and most of this activity appears to be concentrated at the edge of orchards. Initial data suggests that species assemblages vary with position in the agricultural landscape: skunks are most common in internal orchard sites, bobcats, coyotes and foxes dominate edge habitats, and natural sites do not have a clearly dominant species, but meso-carnivores (skunks and raccoons) are less common. We are collecting additional data to confirm these relationships. |
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