Kawasan Ekosistem Bukit Tigapuluh memainkan peran penting dalam mendukung konservasi biodiversitas di Sumatera. Kawasan ini juga merupakan habitat bagi kucing liar seperti Harimau Sumatera (Panthera tigris sumatrae) dan jenis kucing lainnya. Kucing liar umumnya memiliki daerah teritori berbeda yang menyebabkan terjadinya pembagian relung. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui jenis-jenis kucing liar, distribusi spatial dan waktu aktifnya di Kawasan Ekosistem Bukit Tigapuluh. Camera trap diletakkan secara sistematis pada grid 2 km x 2 km pada bulan September 2016 sampai September 2017 untuk mengetahui jenis kucing liar. Distribusi spatial setiap jenis kucing dianalisis dari koordinat-koordinat camera trap dengan software ArcGis 10.2. Sedangkan waktu aktif kucing liar dianalisis deskripsi kuantitatif dan Kernel Density Estimation dengan Rstatistic 3.4.1. Penelitian ini menemukan lima jenis kucing liar yaitu Harimau (Panthera tigris), Macan Dahan (Neofelis diardi), Kucing Emas (Pardofelis temminckii), Kucing Batu (Pardofelis marmorata), dan Kucing Hutan (Prionailurus bengalensis). Pola distribusi Harimau Sumatera, Kucing Batu, Kucing Emas, dan Kucing Hutan adalah clustered (mengelompok). Sedangkan, pola distribusi Macan Dahan adalah dispersed (merata). Harimau Sumatera, Kucing Batu, dan Kucing Emas cenderung aktif siang hari; Kucing Hutan cenderung aktif malam hari dan Macan Dahan aktif pada siang dan malam (cathemeral). Kucing liar ditemukan hidup berdampingan secara spatial dan temporal di kawasan ini.

The Bukit Tigapuluh Ecosystem Landscape plays crucial roles for supporting biodiversity conservation in Sumatera. This landscape is also as habitat for wildcats such as Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and other felidae. Wild cats are commonly have distinct territoriality and lead to niche separation among them. This research aim to investigate the wild cats spesies, assess their spatial distribution and their activity patterns in the landscape. Camera traps were placed in systematic in a grid of 2 km x 2 km on September 2016 until September 2017 to identify wild cats species. The spatial distributions of each cats were analyzed from the geographic coordinates of the traps using ArcGis 10.2 software. The activity patterns of each species were analyzed using the Kernel Density estimation in Rstatistik 3.4.1. Five wild cats were found live in the landscape i.e. Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), Sunda Clouded Leopard (Neofelis diardi), Asian Golden Cat (Pardofelis temminckii), Marbled Cat (Pardofelis marmorata), and Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). The spatial distribution patterns of the four wild cats i.e. Panthera tigris, Pardofelis temminckii, Pardofelis marmorata, and Prionailurus bengalensis were clustered while Neofelis diardi was dispersed. The activity pattern of Panthera tigris, Pardofelis marmorata and Pardofelis temminckii were mostly diurnal, Prionailurus bengalensis was mostly nocturnal and Neofelis diardi was cathemeral. The cats in the landscape are spatially and temporally coexist among each other.

Kata Kunci : Kawasan Bukit Tigapuluh, kucing liar, distribusi, waktu aktif, tumpang-tindih relung.;Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape, wildcats, distribution, activity pattern, niche overlap