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Habitat preferences of medium/large mammals in human disturbed forests in Central Japan

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Ecological Research

Abstract

It is a great concern whether human disturbed forest, i.e., secondary forest or monoculture forest, can be a habitat for the wildlife. We examined habitat preference of medium/large terrestrial mammal species in a human-disturbed mountainous settlement area of Akiyama Region, Central Japan, by using camera-traps, which were placed at conifer plantation forest, high/low-disturbed deciduous broad-leaved forest, and broad-leaved/conifer mixed forest in 2008 and 2009. Camera-traps were operational for 4568.6 trap-nights producing 740 photo-captures of 13 medium/large terrestrial mammal species. Japanese serow and Japanese hare dominated 54 % of all photo-captures. Low-disturbed deciduous broad-leaved forest showed the richest mammal fauna (12 spp.). We suggested that fruit trees and understory vegetation provided suitable habitat for frugivorous as well as herbivorous mammals. The mixed forest showed the lowest mammal fauna (6 spp.), which located higher elevation. High-disturbed deciduous broad-leaved forest (9 spp.) was also supposed to be a better habitat for some frugivorous mammals and herbivorous mammals, but tended to be avoided by Japanese marten and Japanese macaque. Conifer plantation forest (7 spp.) with understory vegetation was supposed to be a better habitat for Japanese serow and Japanese hare, but not for the other species. Without fruit trees, conifer plantation forest was supposed to be non-attractive habitat for frugivorous mammals. We demonstrated that, if a forest had been disturbed by human, the forest can be a habitat for terrestrial herbivores, but this was not always true for frugivores.

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Acknowledgments

We were permitted to conduct a series of field researches by Koakazawa settlement, Uenohara settlement, Sakaemura Village Office and Department of Hoku-Shin Forestry Office. Members of Hist-Chubu working group of research project D-02 of Research Institute for Humanity and Nature offered me helpful suggestions and comments. We were financially assisted by research project D-02 and the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund (S9) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.

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  1. Riyou Tsujino

    Present address: Center for Natural Environment Education, Nara University of Education, Takabatake-cho, Nara, 630-8528, Japan

  2. Takakazu Yumoto

    Present address: Primate Research Institute Kyoto University, Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 457-4 Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8047, Japan

    Riyou Tsujino & Takakazu Yumoto

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  1. Riyou Tsujino
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Correspondence to Riyou Tsujino.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

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Table 4 Canopy tree species composition of four vegetation types in 4 × 10 m plot
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Tsujino, R., Yumoto, T. Habitat preferences of medium/large mammals in human disturbed forests in Central Japan. Ecol Res 29, 701–710 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-014-1159-9

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