DEAR EDITOR,Big cats,such as Amur tigers(Panthera tigris altaica)and Amur leopards(P.pardus orientalis),are apex predator and have evolved specialized traits for hunting and carnivory(Moya et al.,2022),thus playing a ...DEAR EDITOR,Big cats,such as Amur tigers(Panthera tigris altaica)and Amur leopards(P.pardus orientalis),are apex predator and have evolved specialized traits for hunting and carnivory(Moya et al.,2022),thus playing a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem integrity by regulating prey-predator dynamics.However,human-induced pressures,habitat fragmentation,and environmental alterations have restricted these species in small and isolated populations.Currently,all extant big cats are categorized as endangered or threatened according to their conservation status.Amur tigers and Amur leopards share overlapping geographic ranges,habitats,and certain prey species in the forests of Northeast Asia(Jiang et al.,2015).To reduce interspecies conflict,these carnivores exhibit differentiated dietary and temporal niches.Amur tigers predominantly prey on large ungulates,while Amur leopards hunt small to medium-sized animals(Sugimoto et al.,2016).Additionally,they occupy different temporal niches,with tigers being active at night and leopards more active during the day.Despite spatial and temporal niche partitioning,interspecific competition between these two species is inevitable.Tigers,benefiting from their greater size,have a competitive advantage over leopards,which can manifest in occasional leopard predation by tigers and declines in leopard populations with increasing tiger density(Jiang et al.,2015).Tigers also displace leopards from marginal habitats in nature reserves where they coexist.展开更多
基金supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China(2572022DQ03)National Natural Science Foundation of China(32170517)+1 种基金Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write(2017B030301011)supported by China National GeneBank(CNGB)。
文摘DEAR EDITOR,Big cats,such as Amur tigers(Panthera tigris altaica)and Amur leopards(P.pardus orientalis),are apex predator and have evolved specialized traits for hunting and carnivory(Moya et al.,2022),thus playing a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem integrity by regulating prey-predator dynamics.However,human-induced pressures,habitat fragmentation,and environmental alterations have restricted these species in small and isolated populations.Currently,all extant big cats are categorized as endangered or threatened according to their conservation status.Amur tigers and Amur leopards share overlapping geographic ranges,habitats,and certain prey species in the forests of Northeast Asia(Jiang et al.,2015).To reduce interspecies conflict,these carnivores exhibit differentiated dietary and temporal niches.Amur tigers predominantly prey on large ungulates,while Amur leopards hunt small to medium-sized animals(Sugimoto et al.,2016).Additionally,they occupy different temporal niches,with tigers being active at night and leopards more active during the day.Despite spatial and temporal niche partitioning,interspecific competition between these two species is inevitable.Tigers,benefiting from their greater size,have a competitive advantage over leopards,which can manifest in occasional leopard predation by tigers and declines in leopard populations with increasing tiger density(Jiang et al.,2015).Tigers also displace leopards from marginal habitats in nature reserves where they coexist.
