Daily activity patterns in mammals depend on food availability, reproductive stage, habitat selection, intraspecific interactions and predation risk, among other factors. Some mammals exhibit behavioral plasticity in activity patterns, which allows them to adapt to environmental changes. A good example of this can be found in the red fox Vulpes vulpes. This species is adapted to living in highly humanized environments, where it is often culled because it may affect human interests (e.g. through the consumption of game species or livestock). We assessed the potential main drivers of the daily activity patterns of the red fox in 12 Iberian Mediterranean areas through the use of camera traps. Among drivers, we considered main prey availability (European wild rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus), degree of human disturbance (e.g. distance to human settlements, and intensity of predator control) and habitat structure. Our results revealed a predominantly crepuscular and nocturnal activity of foxes with local variations. Although overall fox activity increased with rabbit availability, the temporal overlap with prey activity was on average low, because foxes increased activity when rabbits decreased theirs (twilight‐night). Red fox activity rhythms seemed to be determined by human presence where human disturbance is high. In addition, diurnal activity decreased in areas with higher levels of human disturbance (closer to human settlements and high predator control intensity) and increased in dense habitats. Our study shows that daily activity patterns of highly adaptable species are determined by several interacting drivers, resulting in complex behavioral patterns. This suggests that further ecological studies should consider different factors simultaneously for a better understanding of daily activity patterns of wildlife in different landscapes.

Competition is a widespread interaction among carnivores, ultimately manifested through one or more dimensions of the species' ecological niche. One of the most explicit manifestations of competitive interactions regards spatial displacement. Its interpretation under a theoretical context provides an important tool to deepen our understanding of biological systems and communities, but also for wildlife management and conservation. We used Bayesian multispecies occupancy models on camera‐trapping data from multiple sites in Southwestern Europe (SWE) to investigate competitive interactions within a carnivore guild, and to evaluate how species' ecological traits are shaping coexistence patterns. Seventeen out of 26 pairwise interactions departed from a hypothesis of independent occurrence, with spatial association being twice as frequent as avoidance. Association behaviors were only detected among mesocarnivores, while avoidance mainly involved mesocarnivores avoiding the apex predator (n = 4) and mesocarnivore‐only interactions (n = 2). Body mass ratios, defined as the dominant over the subordinate species body mass, revealed an important negative effect ( ) on co‐occurrence probability, and support that spatially explicit competitive interactions are mostly expressed by larger species able to dominate over smaller ones, with a threshold in body mass ratios of ~4, above which local‐scale intraguild coexistence is unlikely. We found a weak relationship between pairwise trophic niche overlap and the probability of coexistence ( ), suggesting that competition for feeding resources may not be a key driver of competition, at least at the scale of our analysis. Despite local‐scale avoidance, regional‐scale coexistence appears to be maintained by the spatial structuring of the competitive environment. We provide evidence that SWE ecosystems consist of spatially structured competitive environments, and propose that coexistence among near‐sized species is likely achieved through the interplay of “facultative” and “behavioral” character displacements. Factors influencing carnivore coexistence likely include context‐dependent density and trait‐mediated effects, which should be carefully considered for a sound understanding of the mechanisms regulating these communities.

The interactions between animals and their environment vary across species, regions, but also with gender. Sex‐specific relations between individuals and the ecosystem may entail different behavioral choices and be expressed through different patterns of habitat use. Regardless, only rarely sex‐specific traits are addressed in ecological modeling approaches. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is a species of conservation concern in Europe, with a highly fragmented and declining distribution across most of its range. We assessed sex‐specific habitat selection patterns for the European wildcat, at the landscape and home range levels, across its Iberian biogeographic distribution using a multipopulation approach. We developed resource selection functions in a use‐availability framework using radio‐telemetry data from five wildcat populations. At the landscape level, we observed that, while both genders preferentially established home ranges in areas close to broadleaf forests and far from humanized areas, females selected mid‐range elevation areas with some topographic complexity, whereas males used lowland areas. At the home range level, both females and males selected areas dominated by scrublands or broadleaf forests, but habitat features were less important at this level. The strength of association to habitat features was higher for females at both spatial levels, suggesting a tendency to select habitats with higher quality that can grant them enhanced access to shelter and feeding resources. Based on our results, we hypothesize that sex‐biased behavioral patterns may contribute to the resilience of wildcats’ genetic integrity through influencing the directionality of hybridization with domestic cats. Our study provides information about European wildcats’ habitat use in an Iberian context, relevant for the implementation of conservation plans, and highlights the ecological relevance of considering sex‐related differences in environmental preferences.

Context: Camera trapping is commonly employed for studying carnivores because it provides better data than do other methods, and with lower costs. Increasing the probability of detecting the target species can reduce parameter uncertainty and survey effort required to estimate density and occurrence. Different methods, including attractants and baits, can be used to increase detectability. However, their efficacy has rarely been quantitatively assessed. Aims: To quantify the efficacy of scent and bait attractants to increase the detection probability of mesocarnivores by camera trapping. Methods: We tested two scent lures, valerian extract (Val) and lynx urine (LU), their combination (Val–LU), and a non-reward bait (i.e. not accessible to the animal), raw chicken, as carnivore attractants in two protected areas of central Spain. We used camera-trapping records under an occupancy-modelling framework to estimate attractant-specific detection probabilities for six mesocarnivore species, and quantified their effects by comparing these estimates with the baseline (i.e. no attractant) detectability. Key results: The weekly detection probability of four mesocarnivore species (red fox, Vulpes vulpes, stone marten, Martes foina, common genet, Genetta genetta, and Eurasian badger, Meles meles) significantly increased when Val–LU (between 0.11 ± 0.07 and 0.67 ± 0.05) or chicken (between 0.31 ± 0.02 and 0.77 ± 0.22) were used as attractant, when compared with baseline detectability (between 0.01 ± 0.02 and 0.29 ± 0.05). Although rarely, wildcats (Felis silvestris) were mostly detected with Val–LU. The probability of detecting a species after k sampling occasions (7 days each) where it was present was highly improved with both Val–LU and chicken for all species (e.g. from 0.20 to 0.98 after four sampling occasions with chicken for the stone marten). Both attractants reduced the sampling time required to ascertain that a species was absent to between 42% and 15% of baseline values. Conclusions: The tested attractants greatly improved the detectability of most Iberian mesocarnivores. Although chicken was preferable for some species such as stone marten, Val–LU is most efficient for detecting the whole mesocarnivore community, including rare species such as wildcats. Implications: Attractant selection in studies using non-invasive detection methods must be supported by quantitative assessment of the detection probability associated to each attractant. Researchers must choose those attractants best fitting target species and study aims.