Density and spatial partitioning of endangered sympatric Javan leopard (Felidae) and dholes (Canidae) in a tropical forest landscape

Abstract

Abstract. This study explores two large carnivores, Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) and dhole (Cuon alpinus) that are known to have an overlapping diet and are sympatric in the south-western part of West Java. We characterised their spatiotemporal habitat together with four medium-sized prey species. We used photographs collected along 39.420 night-traps from 108 camera-traps installed on the peninsula of Ujung Kulon National Park (UKNP). We are using maximum entropy modelling (MaxEnt) to investigate seasonal environmental factors. Concerning the dominant prey species, our results showed that distances to secondary forest edge were highly significant for both Javan leopard and dhole in wet and dry seasons. Javan leopard is mostly active at dawn and dusk, whereas spatially correlated with Javan mousedeer and red muntjac. Dhole exhibited diurnal activity and were avoiding Javan leopard to a certain extent. Its spatial use is overlapping with red muntjac, wild boar, and banteng. Using Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) methods, the density estimation for Javan leopard were 10.91 and 11.54 individuals/100 km2 in wet and dry seasons, respectively. We confirmed UKNP as one of Indonesia's biodiversity hotspots and a critical area to preserve Javan leopard and dholes.