Seasonal demography of different black rat (Rattus rattus) populations under contrasting natural habitats in Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles, Caribbean)

• Published in: Mammal Research
• Main Authors: Goedert, Jean, Cochard, David, Lenoble, Arnaud, Lorvelec, Olivier, Pisanu, Benoît, Royer, Aurélien
• Other Authors: De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Écologie et santé des écosystèmes (ESE), Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-INSTITUT AGRO Agrocampus Ouest, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro), Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation (CESCO), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Patrimoine naturel (PatriNat), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Office français de la biodiversité (OFB), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Financial support from the Guadeloupe Regional Council, and the DAC of Guadeloupe., European Project: 2016-FED-503,ECSIT
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: Lesser Antilles; Ecology; Population; Precipitation; Black rat; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02986612; https://hal.science/hal-02986612/document; https://hal.science/hal-02986612/file/Goeddert-etal_2020-Seasonal-demography-of-different-black-rat-populations-in-Guadeloupe_version-auteurs.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-020-00523-w

12 pages International audience The black rat (Rattus rattus) is one of the most widespread rodents on islands worldwide, introduced over the last five centuries. However, reliable information concerning how biotic or abiotic factors influence key parameters of black rat population biology in insular contexts is currently unavailable. Here we aim to document the relative abundance of rat populations and evaluate how the age structure and the body mass of adult individual vary seasonally in different forest environments under contrasting climatic conditions. Rats were captured during wet and dry seasons in 2017–2018 at one or two sites in each of the four natural forested environments of Guadeloupe, all of which experience widely different annual rainfall (semi-deciduous dry forest, seasonal evergreen forest, mountain rainforest and Pterocarpus officinalis swamp forest). A total of 171 black rats were captured during a 1018 trap-night effort. Overall capture results confirm this species to thrive in all the natural forested environments we investigated. With the exception of the P. officinalis swamp forest, black rat populations reach higher relative abundances during the wet season due to juvenile and sub-adult recruitment at the end of the dry season. In contrast, in the P. officinalis swamp forest, breeding activity continues during both seasons and relative rat abundance appears to fluctuate less seasonally. The relative abundance of adult black rats is also higher in the seasonal semi-evergreen and rainforests that experience little or no water stress. These contexts therefore appear the most favourable for sustaining black rat populations, a pattern that is most likely connected to a combination of climatic and/or edaphic parameters that condition the year-round availability and abundance of food resources.