Temporal Niche Overlap of Medium Sized Herbivores in the Seoraksan and Jirisan National Parks, South Korea

Abstract

Studies on the daily activity patterns of species can contribute to gaining an understanding of community ecology. During the warm seasons of the years 2019 to 2021, we used camera traps to monitor the activity patterns of water deer Hydropotes inermis, roe deer Capreolus pygargus, and Amur goral Naemorhedus caudatus in the Seoraksan and Jirisan National Parks, South Korea. We compared activity patterns among pairs of sympatric species in each area, as well as those of water deer and roe deer populations inhabiting the two parks. Overlaps in activity patterns were estimated based on kernel density function and overlap coefficient analyses, and activity pattern distributions were compared using Watson's two-sample test. We detected an overlap of the activity patterns of sympatric species and established that there were no significant differences in the distribution of activity patterns in the two areas. However, we detected differences between the Seoraksan and Jirisan sites with respect to the activity patterns of water deer particularly their patterns of nocturnal activity, which could be attributable to differences in community inter-specific interactions and food resources for water deer inhabiting the Seoraksan and Jirisan National Parks.