White tayra, black tayra (Eira barbara); leucistic tayras thriving in an undisturbed rainforest area in Suriname

Résumé fourni par la source

The tayra (Eira barbara) is a mustelid with a large distribution in Central and South America. From many locations within its range white, leucistic individuals have been reported. Most reports are from human impacted areas with fragmented forests. We report on a population of tayras in an undisturbed rainforest area in Western Suriname over a 4-year period. Observations were made through camera trapping in a 512 km2 area at the Upper Kabalebo River. During the study period, the percentage of independent records of white tayras from the tayra population changed from 4.9% in the first year to 25.5% in the fourth year (RAI of white tayras changed from 0.04 to 0.13). Seven tayra groups (2 or 3 individuals) triggered the cameras. Even though white tayras on average made up 16.1% of all tayra triggers and black tayras 83.9%, five out of seven (71.43%) detections of tayra groups contained a white morph, indicating that social interactions are not disturbed by the anomalous coloration. To explain the successful survival of highly visible white tayras in a rainforest, we analysed spatial and temporal relationships of white and black tayras with their potential predators, jaguars, pumas and ocelots. Jaguars and pumas share temporal activity periods with diurnal tayras, providing frequent opportunities for intraguild predation. Nonetheless, it seems that fitness of leucistic tayras in an undisturbed rainforest is not adversely affected by predation pressure or hunting efficiency, while positive social interactions provide further fitness advantages.

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