Abstract
The strength of interspecific interactions in predator communities is difficult to study and remains poorly understood for many predator assemblages. Predators influence the broader ecosystem, so identifying the relative importance of competition, prey, and habitat in shaping predator interactions has broad conservation and management implications. We investigated space-use among five predator species-Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Bobcat (Lynx rufus), Coyote (Canis latrans), Mountain Lion (Puma concolor), and Gray Wolf (C. lupus)-across three temporal scales in northern Idaho, USA, We used camera-trap data to test whether potentially subordinate predators spatially avoided dominant predators and how prey availability influenced those relationships. As expected, prey availability influenced the distribution of all predators at one or more temporal scales. We found little evidence that subordinate predators spatially avoided dominant predators, but instead space-use was positively associated between Coyotes and Bobcats at coarser timescales and between mesopredators and apex predators at finer timescales. In addition, Coyote occurrence differed markedly with respect to Bobcat presence depending on the abundance of different prey species. Our results suggest attraction to shared habitats influenced space-use in the predator community more than avoidance of competitors. In addition, relatively high densities of a common prey source likely facilitated the spatial coexistence in this predator community. Our study demonstrates the value of simultaneously assessing multiple interspecific interactions across different spatiotemporal scales to discern complex and often context-dependent relationships within the predator guild.