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More Human Activity Linked to Tigers Becoming More Nocturnal and Leopards Shifting Their Core Areas

Wild tiger stands on a rocky riverbank looking toward the camera; animal sharp, fully visible.
Research: Ecology, Behaviour

Amur tigers (Panthera tigris) and Amur leopards (Panthera pardus) share a landscape in northeast China. A two-year camera-trap study at more than 300 sites examined how human activity related to where the cats occurred, when they were active, and how their activity overlapped with hoofed mammals such as their ungulate prey.

Tigers shifted toward nighttime

Leopards were less likely to use sites or move into them where tigers were present, and cameras recorded them less often there. At sites with more human activity, tigers and leopards occurred together less often than expected by chance. The relationship between tiger presence and leopard use of space and time varied with disturbance. The researchers suggest that leopards avoided tigers by changing when or where they were active, particularly by shifting their core activity range.

At sites with more human activity, tigers were more nocturnal; leopards did not show the same change in daily activity timing. People were predominantly active by day. At more disturbed sites, tigers’ activity overlapped less with that of ungulate prey. Their spatial overlap with prey did not show the same decline: tigers and prey could use the same areas while being active at different times.

The findings suggest that the timing and location of human activity are relevant to how these large cats share the landscape and when tigers overlap with their prey. The camera-trap patterns show associations in this forest, rather than proving that human activity caused them.

Sources and image credit

  1. Fear of humans mediates spatiotemporal interactions between endangered large Asian felidsFull-text primary journal article; supports the study area, camera-trap data, findings and authors’ interpretation.
  2. Fear of humans mediates spatiotemporal interactions between endangered large Asian felidsBibliographic record confirming the journal publication date and DOI.

Image: Wild Bengal tiger photographed in Ranthambore National Park, India. Photo: Asif N Khan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Representative photograph; not from the northeastern China camera-trap study. · CC BY 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

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Tiger Panthera tigris Explore species Leopard Panthera pardus Explore species

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