CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PREDATOR AND PREY AT WILDLIFE CROSSING STRUCTURES IN CALIFORNIA

Addison L Arsenith; Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis; alarsenith@ucdavis.edu; Catherine Nguyen, Lorna Haworth, Shannon Lemieux, Dave Waetjen, Benjamin Hodgson, Fraser Shilling

While wildlife crossing structures improve connectivity across highways, little is known about how they influence wildlife behavior, particularly prey-following predator behavior. We analyzed camera trap data from multiple areas in California (two southern, three northern, one mixed), focusing on mesopredators: bobcats, gray foxes, and coyotes, and their common prey. Predator detections were categorized into time bins based on how many minutes they were observed after their prey species (0-30, 0-60....180-210). Using a negative binomial regression, we tested for evidence of predators following prey at individual and grouped study locations, against non-prey reference species. Overall, there was no significant evidence of prey-following behavior (p > 0.05) across all study areas. However, species-specific patterns did emerge. For example, along State Route 62/Banning Pass, bobcats were more likely to appear within 30 minutes of prey detections (p = 0.00276), with bobcat activity showing strong positive associations with black-tailed jackrabbits and desert cottontails. For coyote and gray fox detections, there was little indication of prey-following behavior. These findings suggest that this behavior is not widespread, but may occur with some species under specific structural or environmental conditions. It seems possible that wildlife crossing structures are not significant places for predator-prey interactions.

Natural History of Mammals 
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