The Bornean carnivore community: Lessons from a little-known guild
Ross J., Hearn AJ., Macdonald DW.
© Oxford University Press 2017. Niche differentiation reduces competition between species and modifies predation risk such that species coexistence is promoted. Temporal partitioning is a type of niche differentiation that has only relatively recently been specifically investigated. In this chapter, data from 515 camera trap stations from Sabah, Malaysian Borneo is used to describe the presence, habitat associations and activity patterns of Bornean carnivores and to investigate temporal partitioning between species. Primary and old logged forest were the most species rich sites and small forest fragments and oil palm plantations supported the fewest species. Species’ activity patterns within families were more similar than those between families. Only the masked palm civet and sun bear showed variation in activity among habitats. Considering the species as rough trophic groups rather than families revealed that each group contained both diurnal and nocturnal species, which presumably helps to promote coexistence between the musteloids and other species in each group.