Carnivores play an important role in ecosystem functioning as apex predators. However, most carnivore species are threatened or have been extirpated in human-dominated landscapes. The Mediterranean region of central Chile is a biodiversity hotspot, but expansion of agricultural areas such as vineyards is degrading wildlife habitat. We estimated the species richness and composition of carnivore communities in remnant fragments of sclerophyllous forest-shrubland in the vineyard landscapes of central Chile to evaluate the effects of human disturbance at different spatial scales. We tested two hypotheses: (1) vineyard landscapes with higher levels of human disturbance support a lower diversity of native carnivores in fragments of remnant native vegetation compared to landscapes with larger areas of natural habitat, and (2) habitat specialists and generalists respond differentially to human influence at the habitat vs landscape spatial scale. We used camera traps at 12 sites across the study area and evaluated the impact of human disturbance indicators on the richness and detection frequency of carnivore species. We found that human population density negatively affected carnivore richness and was associated with a lower detection frequency of the Vulnerable guiña Leopardus guigna. The presence of domestic dogs also had a negative effect on the detection frequency of the guiña and the two native species of foxes, the culpeo Lycalopex culpaeus and South American grey fox Lycalopex griseus. We conclude that protecting remnants of native forest in vineyard landscapes is crucial for carnivore conservation in central Chile.

中文翻译：

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原生森林的残余支持智利中部葡萄园景观的食肉动物多样性

食肉动物作为顶级捕食者在生态系统功能中发挥着重要作用。然而，大多数食肉动物物种在人类主导的景观中受到威胁或已经灭绝。智利中部的地中海地区是生物多样性热点地区，但葡萄园等农业区的扩张正在破坏野生动物的栖息地。我们估计了智利中部葡萄园景观中硬叶林-灌木林残余碎片中食肉动物群落的物种丰富度和组成，以评估人类干扰在不同空间尺度上的影响。我们测试了两个假设：（1）与自然栖息地面积较大的景观相比，人类干扰程度较高的葡萄园景观支持残余原生植被碎片中原生食肉动物的多样性较低，(2) 栖息地专家和通才在栖息地与景观空间尺度上对人类影响的反应不同。我们在整个研究区域的 12 个地点使用了相机陷阱，并评估了人为干扰指标对食肉动物物种的丰富度和检测频率的影响。我们发现人口密度对食肉动物的丰富度产生负面影响，并且与易受害吉尼亚人的较低检测频率有关美洲豹. 家犬的存在也对吉尼亚和两种本土狐狸的检测频率产生了负面影响，即 culpeo狼疮和南美灰狐灰番茄. 我们得出结论，保护葡萄园景观中的原生森林遗迹对于智利中部的食肉动物保护至关重要。