Free-ranging dogs (Canis familiaris) negatively impact wildlife worldwide. Yet despite being members of the order Carnivora, we have relatively little information on the role that dogs play in carnivore communities. To evaluate if activity patterns of wild carnivores are influenced by the activity of dogs and if the latter is influenced by the activity of pumas (Puma concolor), we placed camera traps in eight protected areas in São Paulo State and in six in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, from 2011 to 2017. We obtained 551 photo-captures of dogs in 20,524 trap nights in 11 of the 14 protected areas. Dogs were active primarily during the day and therefore overlapped mainly with diurnal carnivores, such as tayras (Eira barbara) and coatis (Nasua nasua). Mesocarnivore temporal activity did not appear affected by the activity of dogs, since the activity patterns of tayras, coatis, maned wolves (Chrysocyon brachyurus), and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) were similar (from 67 to 82% of overlap) in areas with and without dogs. Further, the activity of dogs was not influenced by puma activity; dog activity patterns in areas with pumas and without pumas overlapped by 84%, with minimal differences. While mesocarnivores might alter their spatial behavior to avoid overlap with dogs, it appears that dog use of protected areas does not result in shifts in the temporal activity of mesocarnivores. Further, we hypothesize that dogs that use protected areas are mostly provisioned by humans (owners), and therefore, their activity patterns may be more related to that of their owners than to the presence of native carnivore species.

中文翻译：

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保护区中的狗活动：对中食动物的行为影响和顶级掠食者的影响

自由放养的狗（犬似犬）对全世界的野生生物造成负面影响。尽管是食肉目动物的一员，但关于狗在食肉动物群落中所起的作用，我们知之甚少。为了评估野生肉食动物的活动模式是通过狗的活动，如果后者是由美洲狮（活性的影响影响彪马长臂猿），我们把相机陷阱在圣保罗州8个保护区和六个里约热内卢从2011年至2017年，巴西巴西州。在14个保护区中的11个保护区中，我们在20,524次诱捕之夜中获得了551张狗的照片。狗主要在白天活动，因此主要与昼夜食肉动物重叠，例如tayras（Eira barbara）和coatis（Nasua nasua）。中性食肉动物的颞活动似乎不受狗活动的影响，因为泰勒斯，大coat，鬃狼（Chrysocyon brachyurus）和小腿（Leopardus pardalis）的活动方式）在有或没有狗的地方相似（重叠的67％至82％）。此外，狗的活动不受彪马活动的影响。在有和没有脓肿的地区，狗的活动模式重叠了84％，差异很小。尽管中食肉食动物可能会改变其空间行为，以避免与狗重叠，但似乎狗对保护区的使用不会导致中食肉食动物的活动时间发生变化。此外，我们假设使用保护区的狗主要是由人类（所有者）提供的，因此，它们的活动方式可能与其所有者的活动方式有关，而不是与天然食肉动物种类的存在有关。