Daily rhythmicity of behavior of nine species of South American feral felids in captivity.

Physiol Behav. 2017 Aug 24;180:107-112. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.08.015. [Epub ahead of print] Antonio SB1, Cerutti RD2, Scaglione MC2, Piccione G3, Refinetti R4. Author information 1 Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina; Estación Biológica Experimental Granja La Esmeralda, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina. 2 Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina. 3 Laboratorio di Cronofisiologia Veterinaria, Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie, Università degli Studi di Messina, 98168 Messina, Italy. 4 Circadian Rhythm Laboratory, Department of Psychological Science, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA. Electronic address: refinetti@circadian.org. Abstract The authors analyzed the daily activity rhythms of the domestic cat and of eight of the ten feral felid species that are indigenous to South America. All species showed daily rhythmicity of activity in captivity under a natural light-dark cycle. The robustness of the rhythmicity varied from species to species, but the grand mean of 34% was within the range of robustness previously described for mammalian species ranging in size from mice to cattle. There was not a sharp division between diurnal and nocturnal felids. Instead, what was found was a gradient of diurnality going from the predominantly nocturnal margay (72% of activity counts during the night) to the predominantly diurnal jaguarundi (87% of activity counts during the day) with the remaining species lying in between these two extremes. The ecological implications of temporal niche variations are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KEYWORDS: Circadian rhythm; Felis catus; Leopardus colocolo; Leopardus geoffroyi; Leopardus guttulus; Leopardus pardalis; Leopardus tigrinus; Leopardus wiedii; Locomotor activity; Panthera onca; Puma concolor; Puma yagouaroundi PMID: 28842189 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.08.015