People, livestock and carnivores are constantly interacting especially at the interface between community and protected areas. The carnivore guild category in Volcanoes National Park is important, and if well studied, could lead to additional research opportunities for improved wildlife management. We used single season occupancy models with multi-species data, to understand the factors affecting species occurrence, detection and distribution among native carnivores of Volcanoes National Park while accounting for imperfect detection and the effects of site variables on the observed trends. Our findings showed that six native carnivores use the park edge, where the side-striped jackal (Canis adustus) and serval (Leptailurus serval) are the most widespread with ψ = 0.904 (SE 0.051) and ψ = 0.415 (SE 0.086), respectively, followed by African golden cat (Caracal aurata) with ψ = 0.198 (SE 0.066), while the servaline genet (Genetta servalina), slender mongoose (Herpestes sanguineus) and spotted hyaena (Crocuta Crocuta) have very low probability of occupancy with ψ = 0.087 (SE 0.045), ψ = 0.044 (SE 0.032) and ψ = 0.022 (SE 0.022) respectively. In addition, there is high occurrence of feral dogs and human presence in the park edge. Overall, the occupancy of native carnivores increases as distance from settlements increase (β = 0.559 [SE 0.195]) except for hyaena and mongoose which showed a decrease in occupancy as distance to settlements increased. In general, native carnivores preferred sites located close to pasture areas, compared to areas used for agriculture and agroforestry. High overlapping activity between native carnivores and other wildlife varied greatly between species. This study provides the baseline information for the understanding of native carnivores using the park edge and insights on their interactions with other wildlife, livestock and human activities at the interface between the park and local communities. The co-occurrence of livestock, feral dogs and humans, and native wildlife is a challenge for both wildlife conservation inside the protected area and local communities who might be negatively affected in different ways including interspecific competition, disease exposure and increased conflicts. We anticipate that some of the current livestock keeping are hindered by the challenges of having native carnivores dwelling along the park edge and community interface.

中文翻译：

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影响卢旺达国家公园-人类社区界面食肉动物存在的因素的占用分析

人、牲畜和食肉动物不断相互作用，特别是在社区和保护区之间的交界处。火山国家公园的食肉动物协会类别很重要，如果进行充分研究，可能会为改善野生动物管理带来更多研究机会。我们使用具有多物种数据的单季节占用模型，以了解影响火山国家公园本地食肉动物物种发生、检测和分布的因素，同时考虑不完善的检测以及地点变量对观察到的趋势的影响。我们的研究结果表明，六种本地食肉动物使用公园边缘，其中侧纹豺狼 ( Canis adustus ) 和薮猫 ( Leptailurus serval ) 分布最广，分别为 ψ = 0.904 (SE 0.051) 和 ψ = 0.415 (SE 0.086) ，其次是非洲金猫（Caracal aurata），ψ = 0.198（SE 0.066），而servalinegenet（Genetta servalina），细长猫鼬（Herpestes sanguineus）和斑点鬣狗（Crocuta Crocuta）的占用概率非常低，ψ =分别为 0.087 (SE 0.045)、ψ = 0.044 (SE 0.032) 和 ψ = 0.022 (SE 0.022)。此外，公园边缘野狗和人类的出现率很高。总体而言，本地食肉动物的占有率随着距定居点距离的增加而增加（β = 0.559 [SE 0.195]），但鬣狗和猫鼬除外，它们的占有率随着距定居点距离的增加而减少。一般来说，与农业和农林业使用的地区相比，本地食肉动物更喜欢靠近牧场的地点。本地食肉动物和其他野生动物之间的高度重叠活动在不同物种之间差异很大。这项研究为了解公园边缘的本地食肉动物以及它们在公园和当地社区之间与其他野生动物、牲畜和人类活动的相互作用提供了基线信息。牲畜、野狗和人类以及本土野生动物的共存对保护区内的野生动物保护和当地社区都是一个挑战，当地社区可能会受到不同方式的负面影响，包括种间竞争、疾病暴露和冲突增加。我们预计，目前的一些牲畜饲养会受到公园边缘和社区界面上本地食肉动物居住的挑战的阻碍。