Warming temperatures increase close encounters between two top predator species via changes in spatial behaviour.

Effectively responding to changing environmental and ecological conditions, such as changing climatic conditions, is crucial for individual survival, population dynamics, and ecosystem structuring. Yet it is often unclear to what extent climate-mediated behavioural adjustments impact potential interspecific dynamics within upper trophic levels, particularly within top predator guilds, such as large mammalian carnivores, and to what extent such environmentally mediated plasticity shapes encounters among top predators. We used the African large predator guild, one of the last remaining functionally intact large predator assemblages, to investigate the impacts of ambient temperature on spatial behaviour and close encounters amongst top predators. Using high-resolution GPS data collected over eight years (2011–2018) from 43 individuals across lions (Panthera leo), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), we found one of the first empirical examples of changes in close encounters, herein encounters, between top predator species due to temperature variability. The probability of encounters increased under warming temperatures between cheetahs and lions, with encounters 6.6 times more likely following hot (90th percentile) days, compared to median temperature days. Moreover, we found that these responses paralleled changes in habitat selection and spatial overlap between the species rather than with reductions in temporal partitioning. Interestingly, despite functional similarities between cheetahs and African wild dogs, we found no evidence that African wild dog and lion encounter probabilities, nor spatial overlap, changed as a function of temperature, suggesting that species-specific differences in competitor risk sensitivity may buffer African wild dogs from temperature-driven shifts in competition. Our results provide empirical evidence linking climate variability to changes in close encounters among top predators and highlight how temperature-driven behavioural shifts may alter spatial and temporal relationships between species.