The Status and Conservation of Mesocarnivores in the Sierra Nevada

Carnivores play important roles in structuring communities, and their populations are useful indicators of ecosystem condition (Wennergren and others 1995, Buskirk 1999, Crooks and Soulé 1999, Terborgh and others 2001). As many as 4 of 20 native mammalian carnivore species have been extirpated from the southern Cascade Mountains and Sierra Nevada, with unmeasured effects on ecological communities. Given the loss of a number of significant carnivores from the system, understanding the status and ecological roles of the remaining species has assumed new urgency. Mesocarnivores (intermediate body-size mammalian carnivores; Buskirk and Zielinski (2003) are of particular importance because of their diversity and variety of ecological roles, and unlike the more conspicuous large carnivores, their populations can decrease with little notice.