Interactions between ship rats and house mice at Pureora Forest Park. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Interactions between ship rats and house mice at Pureora Forest Park. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)
- Main Title:
- Interactions between ship rats and house mice at Pureora Forest Park
- Authors:
- Bridgman, Lucy
Innes, John
Gillies, Craig
Fitzgerald, Neil
Rohan, Maheswaran
King, Carolyn - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: When the abundance of ship rats ( Rattus rattus ) is reduced, sympatric house mice ( Mus musculus ) are released from constraints of food shortage, intimidation or predation. As a result, mice may become either more abundant or more active and detectable. To distinguish between these effects, we monitored mice at eight sites within Pureora Forest Park during periods of rat removal and non-removal, and supplemented food in mouse-specific feeders to half of the sites. We used live-trapping to estimate mouse relative abundance, and tracking tunnels to detect activity. Mouse relative abundance increased when rats were removed, which correlated with increased mouse activity in tracking tunnels. Analysis of mouse capture probability showed that although rat population levels predominantly influenced mouse relative abundance, mouse detectability was also affected at a subtler level. Fluctuations in mouse relative abundance were driven by immigration, and there was evidence that mice were food-limited in the presence of abundant rats. However, this effect was not offset by supplementing food, so it is unlikely that exploitation competition alone limits mice in the presence of rats. Instead, when ship rats were abundant the danger to mice was likely to have limited their foraging opportunities. Evidence of direct predation of mice by ship rats was observed, but it is unclear what role direct predation plays in determining mouse abundance relative to risk effects.
- Is Part Of:
- New Zealand journal of zoology. Volume 45:Issue 3(2018)
- Journal:
- New Zealand journal of zoology
- Issue:
- Volume 45:Issue 3(2018)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 45, Issue 3 (2018)
- Year:
- 2018
- Volume:
- 45
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2018-0045-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 238
- Page End:
- 256
- Publication Date:
- 2018-07-03
- Subjects:
- Exploitation competition -- interference competition -- intraguild predation -- invasive species -- New Zealand -- rodent
Animals -- New Zealand -- Periodicals
Zoology -- New Zealand -- Periodicals
Zoology -- Periodicals
Zoologie -- Nouvelle-Zélande -- Périodiques
Zoologie -- Pacifique, Région du -- Périodiques
Zoologie -- Antarctique -- Périodiques
Insectes -- Classification -- Périodiques
Espèces introduites -- Périodiques
590.99305 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.rsnz.org/publish/nzjz ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tnzz20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/03014223.2018.1464477 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1175-8821
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 7141.xml