Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Growing human populations are challenging scientists to find effective ways to control and mitigate human–wildlife conflict while preserving biodiversity. It has been reported that predator odor and calls can drive away rodents, but little is known about species-specific responses of...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7916001 2023-05-15T18:05:11+02:00 Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest Hernández, Mᵃ Carmen Jara-Stapfer, Denise M. Muñoz, Ana Bonacic, Cristian Barja, Isabel Rubio, André V. 2021-02-07 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916001/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33562286 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020428 en eng MDPI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916001/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33562286 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11020428 © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). CC-BY Animals (Basel) Article Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020428 2021-03-07T02:11:50Z SIMPLE SUMMARY: Growing human populations are challenging scientists to find effective ways to control and mitigate human–wildlife conflict while preserving biodiversity. It has been reported that predator odor and calls can drive away rodents, but little is known about species-specific responses of prey. For these reasons, we compared the behavioral changes of common rodent species inhabiting the Chilean temperate forest (Abrothrix spp., the long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus and the black rat Rattus rattus) when exposed to two different native predator calls (the austral pygmy owl Glaucidium nana and the rufous-legged owl Strix rufipes) and a control (no predator calls). Our results showed that all rodent species modified their behavior in the presence of predator calls, but the effects were species dependent. These findings point to the need to carefully study target rodent species instead of applying a general control plan for all rodent species. ABSTRACT: Ecologically based rodent management strategies are arising as a sustainable approach to rodent control, allowing us to preserve biodiversity while safeguarding human economic activities. Despite predator signals being known to generally repel rodents, few field-based studies have compared the behavioral effects of several predators on different prey species, especially in Neotropical ecosystems. Here, we used camera traps to study the behavior of rodent species native to the Chilean temperate forest (Abrothrix spp., long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) and an introduced rodent (black rat Rattus rattus). Using playbacks of raptor calls, we experimentally exposed rodents to three predation risk treatments: austral pygmy owl calls (Glaucidium nana), rufous-legged owl calls (Strix rufipes) and a control treatment (absence of owl calls). We evaluated the effects of the treatments on the time allocated to three behaviors: feeding time, locomotor activity and vigilance. Moonlight and vegetation cover were also considered in ... Text Rattus rattus PubMed Central (PMC) Austral Animals 11 2 428 |
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Article Hernández, Mᵃ Carmen Jara-Stapfer, Denise M. Muñoz, Ana Bonacic, Cristian Barja, Isabel Rubio, André V. Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Growing human populations are challenging scientists to find effective ways to control and mitigate human–wildlife conflict while preserving biodiversity. It has been reported that predator odor and calls can drive away rodents, but little is known about species-specific responses of prey. For these reasons, we compared the behavioral changes of common rodent species inhabiting the Chilean temperate forest (Abrothrix spp., the long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus and the black rat Rattus rattus) when exposed to two different native predator calls (the austral pygmy owl Glaucidium nana and the rufous-legged owl Strix rufipes) and a control (no predator calls). Our results showed that all rodent species modified their behavior in the presence of predator calls, but the effects were species dependent. These findings point to the need to carefully study target rodent species instead of applying a general control plan for all rodent species. ABSTRACT: Ecologically based rodent management strategies are arising as a sustainable approach to rodent control, allowing us to preserve biodiversity while safeguarding human economic activities. Despite predator signals being known to generally repel rodents, few field-based studies have compared the behavioral effects of several predators on different prey species, especially in Neotropical ecosystems. Here, we used camera traps to study the behavior of rodent species native to the Chilean temperate forest (Abrothrix spp., long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) and an introduced rodent (black rat Rattus rattus). Using playbacks of raptor calls, we experimentally exposed rodents to three predation risk treatments: austral pygmy owl calls (Glaucidium nana), rufous-legged owl calls (Strix rufipes) and a control treatment (absence of owl calls). We evaluated the effects of the treatments on the time allocated to three behaviors: feeding time, locomotor activity and vigilance. Moonlight and vegetation cover were also considered in ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Hernández, Mᵃ Carmen Jara-Stapfer, Denise M. Muñoz, Ana Bonacic, Cristian Barja, Isabel Rubio, André V. |
author_facet |
Hernández, Mᵃ Carmen Jara-Stapfer, Denise M. Muñoz, Ana Bonacic, Cristian Barja, Isabel Rubio, André V. |
author_sort |
Hernández, Mᵃ Carmen |
title |
Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest |
title_short |
Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest |
title_full |
Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest |
title_fullStr |
Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest |
title_full_unstemmed |
Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest |
title_sort |
behavioral responses of wild rodents to owl calls in an austral temperate forest |
publisher |
MDPI |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916001/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33562286 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020428 |
geographic |
Austral |
geographic_facet |
Austral |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Animals (Basel) |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916001/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33562286 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11020428 |
op_rights |
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020428 |
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Animals |
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11 |
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2 |
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428 |
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1766176633425756160 |