Temporal and spatial niche partitioning of four sympatric ungulate species in Wuyishan National Park, China

Niche partitioning is a key factor in mitigating competition among sympatric species that share limited resources, thereby contributing to their coexistence. Sympatric species might demonstrate partitioning in multiple ecological dimensions, including time and space. Using camera trapping data, we investigated potential spatiotemporal niche partitioning among four sympatric ungulate species, wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), mainland serow ( Capricornis milneedwardsii ), Reeves’s muntjac ( Muntiacus reevesi ), and tufted deer ( Elaphodus cephalophus ), in Wuyishan National Park (WYS), a predator-limited subtropic humid forest system. We collected 25436 independent records of the four species from 494 camera traps. The four species’ broad-scale temporal niches, measured by daily activity patterns, exhibited medium-to-high interspecific overlap and showed no evidence of partitioning. Similarly, the four species’ broad-scale spatial niches, measured by elevation and general habitat types, showed similar preferences and no evidence of partitioning. Regarding fine-scale combined spatiotemporal patterns, the four species overlapped at relatively low degrees, and there were days of time lags between records of different species. However, such a status was primarily driven by species’ given abundances, and upon this background of segregation created by abundances, many species showed a behavioral tendency of aggregation, meaning that it is beneficial for different species to be at similar sites at a similar time. We suggest that this is most likely because different species are in pursuit of shared favorable fine-scale spatiotemporal conditions, and such pursuit, in the case of WYS ungulates, outweighed the potential need to mitigate interspecific competition by spatial or temporal niche partitioning through behavioral avoidance. Further analysis that considers species diet, incorporates currently undetected microhabitat variables, and distinguishes behaviors would reveal more details of coexistence mechanisms among WYS’s four ungulate species.