SMALL CARNIVORES

Small Carnivores Evolution Ecology Behaviour and Conservation This book focuses on the 232 species of the mammalian Order Carnivora with an average body mass 21 5 kg Small carnivores inhabit virtually all of the Earth s ecosystems adopting terrestrial semi fossorial semi arboreal or semi aquatic lifestyles They occupy multiple trophic levels and therefore play important roles in the regulation of ecosystems such as natural pest control seed dispersal and nutrient cycling In areas where humans have extirpated large carnivores small carnivores may become the dominant predators which may increase their abundance mesopredator release to the point that they can sometimes destabilize communities drive local extirpations and reduce overall biodiversity On the other hand one third of the world s small carnivores are threatened or near threatened with extinction This results from regionally burgeoning human populations industrial and agricultural activities causing habitat reduction destruction fragmentation and pollution Overexploitation persecution and the impacts of introduced predators competitors and pathogens have also negatively affected many small carnivore species Although small carnivores have been intensively studied over the p