Tolerance and intraguild commensalism: the case of the European badger and the Iberian lynx
As a top predator, the Iberian Lynx plays a critical role in regulating mesocarnivore communities across the Iberian Peninsula. While species such as the red fox, the Egyptian mongoose, or the European wildcat develop spatial or temporal avoidance behaviours to minimise potentially lethal encounters...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/392632 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/392632 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Competition Top predator European rabbit Predation Lynx pardinus Meles meles |
| Sumario: | As a top predator, the Iberian Lynx plays a critical role in regulating mesocarnivore communities across the Iberian Peninsula. While species such as the red fox, the Egyptian mongoose, or the European wildcat develop spatial or temporal avoidance behaviours to minimise potentially lethal encounters with the lynx, the relationship between the Eurasian badger and the lynx has been described as one of peaceful coexistence. However, this has not been empirically demonstrated. For the first time, we document close encounters observed between Iberian lynxes and European badgers and shed light on their behavioural interactions. Using camera traps in Montes de Toledo, Spain—an area with a high-density lynx population – we observed that lynxes stayed attentive to the badgers’ activities without showing any signs of alertness, rejection or aggression, between them. These observations challenge traditional assumptions about interspecies interactions among mesocarnivores and provide new insights into the complex dynamics of predator communities in Mediterranean ecosystems. |
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