Hernández Mᵃ Carmen, Jara-Stapfer Denise M, Muñoz Ana, Bonacic Cristian, Barja Isabel, Rubio André V
Laboratory of Etho-Physiology, Department Biology (Unit Zoology), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin 2, Campus Universitario de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas Animales, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile, Santa Rosa 11735, La Pintana, Santiago 8820808, Chile.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Feb 7;11(2):428. doi: 10.3390/ani11020428.
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 ( spp., long-tailed pygmy rice rat ) and an introduced rodent (black rat ). Using playbacks of raptor calls, we experimentally exposed rodents to three predation risk treatments: austral pygmy owl calls (), rufous-legged owl calls () 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 the analyses, as they can modify perceived predation risk. Results showed that predator calls and environmental factors modified prey behavior depending not only on the predator species, but also on the rodent species. Consequently, owl playbacks could be regarded as a promising rodent control tool, knowing that future studies would be critical to deeply understand differences between species in order to select the most effective predator cues.
基于生态的啮齿动物管理策略正在成为一种可持续的啮齿动物控制方法，使我们能够在保护生物多样性的同时保障人类经济活动。尽管已知捕食者信号通常会驱赶啮齿动物，但很少有实地研究比较几种捕食者对不同猎物物种的行为影响，尤其是在新热带生态系统中。在这里，我们使用相机陷阱研究了智利温带森林原生啮齿动物物种（ 物种、长尾侏儒稻鼠）和一种引入的啮齿动物（黑鼠）的行为。通过播放猛禽叫声，我们对啮齿动物进行了三种捕食风险处理的实验：南侏鸺鹠叫声（ ）、棕腿鸺鹠叫声（ ）和对照处理（无猫头鹰叫声）。我们评估了这些处理对分配到三种行为的时间的影响：进食时间、运动活动和警惕性。分析中还考虑了月光和植被覆盖情况，因为它们会改变感知到的捕食风险。结果表明，捕食者叫声和环境因素不仅取决于捕食者物种，还取决于啮齿动物物种，从而改变了猎物的行为。因此，鉴于未来的研究对于深入了解物种之间的差异以选择最有效的捕食者线索至关重要，猫头鹰叫声回放可被视为一种有前景的啮齿动物控制工具。
