Does fire-shaped habitat mosaic support large mammal community in Mediterranean pine forest?

Abstract

Habitat diversity is maintained by fires in fire-prone ecosystems of the Mediterranean Basin, and fire is a significant driver of plant and animal diversity in such ecosystems. We studied large mammal species in a Mediterranean habitat mosaic generated by recent fires. We performed a camera-trapping survey in Pinus brutia forests in southwestern Turkey between May 2009 and February 2010. The study area was structured by recently-burned and unburned habitat patches. A total of 2047 camera-trap days were obtained with 33 camera-trap stations which were established in three replicate study sites (each ~12 km2 in size) comprised both of burned (within the last 15 years) and unburned habitat patches. During the study period, we detected eight large mammal species including brown bear (Ursus arctos), caracal (Caracal caracal), and wild goat (Capra aegagrus), which are of conservation importance. Among these species, six were present both in recently-burned and unburned habitats; except the brown bear (only in burned sites) and the wild goat (only in unburned sites). A permutation test revealed that there is no significant difference in relative abundance of target species except the wild boar (Sus scrofa) which was observed in significantly higher abundances in burned sites than unburned ones (z = -2.3, P = 0.01). Our results suggest that habitat mosaics shaped by fire disturbance in Mediterranean pine forests support large mammal occurrence, and have important implications for the conservation of large mammals in frequently-burned Mediterranean ecosystems.