Activity patterns by two colour morphs of the vulnerable guina, <i>Leopardus guigna</i> (Molina 1782), in temperate forests of southern Chile
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Here we provide the first analysis of activity patterns exhibited by spotted and melanistic colour morphs of the vulnerable guina Leopardus guigna, in a forest landscape of southern Chile. Camera traps showed guinas were mainly active at night (64% of photos). Melanistic guinas were more nocturnal (82% of photos) than the more common spotted cats (57%). Spotted guinas were more active on cloudy and moonless nights. Our study provides novel findings about the behavioural plasticity of guina in different ambient conditions, and the relative advantage to each colour morph to persist in an increasingly human-dominated landscape.
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Keywords
Behavioural patterns, phenotypes, Leopardus guigna