Activity Budget and Foraging Behavior of Introduced Callosciurus Finlaysonii (Rodentia, Sciuridae) in Italy

Bertolino, Sandro; Mazzoglio, Peter John; Vaiana, Manuela; Currado, I.

doi:10.1644/bpr-009

Cited by 31 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Food availability is regarded as the most important factor in determining an animals' activity budget (e.g. Bertolino et al 2004;Hanya 2004). For example, Armitage (2014) has suggested that food abundance has a key influence on the foraging time in marmots.…”

Section: Activity Budget Of Marmots and Pastoralism Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Poudel

Spooner

Matthews

2015

Ecological Research

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Pastoralism is pervasive and has a long history across the rangelands of Trans-Himalaya. Disturbance associated with pastoralism can influence the behaviour of wild animals; hence, it is important to better understand its effects on wild animal behaviour. We compared the activity budget of the Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) between areas experiencing both high and low levels of pastoralism, in the Upper Mustang region in Nepal. Scan sampling was used to collect diurnal activity budget data on adult marmots, whereas 2 min focal observations were made on foraging marmots to assess vigilance during foraging. Contrary to our prediction, there was no significant difference between areas of high and low pastoralism in terms of foraging behaviour. However, the vigilance activity of marmots was significantly influenced by the extent of disturbances associated with pastoralism. Marmots scanned the surroundings more often while foraging and spent more time scanning in high pastoralism sites as compared to marmots in low pastoralism sites. Although we found no direct negative effects of pastoralism on foraging time, marmots shifted the time of day when they foraged. This study suggests that marmots adjust their vigilance behaviour according to the environmental conditions in which they occur. These findings have important implications for the conservation of marmots in the wake of increasing pastoral activities and consequent increases in human-wildlife conflict in Nepal.

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Section: Activity Budget Of Marmots and Pastoralism Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Poudel

Spooner

Matthews

2015

Ecological Research

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“…Populations introduced in urban areas benefit from human ‘left‐overs’ and are often fed by members of the public (Bertolino et al. , Jessen et al. ).…”

Section: Callosciurus As An Invadermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Italy, three breeding periods were observed and females were associated with 1–2 weaned young, but sample size was small (Bertolino et al. ).…”

Section: Callosciurus As An Invadermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Callosciurus squirrels: worldwide introductions, ecological impacts and recommendations to prevent the establishment of new invasive populations

Bertolino¹,

Lurz²

2011

Mammal Review

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ABSTRACT1. Rodents are traded as pet species, a practice that frequently results in new introduced populations. This is particularly true for tree squirrels where often only a few founders can establish viable colonies. 2. Here we review the worldwide introductions, ecology and impacts of two tree squirrel species, Callosciurus erythraeus and C. finlaysonii, and discuss the elements of a strategy to reduce squirrel introductions and settlements. 3. C. erythraeus has established viable populations in Argentina,

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“…While these conditions may be restrictive for some consumer species, they may be less so for some rodent species (Batzli et al 1981). Seed caching rodents such as H. desmarestianus have cheek pouches that allow it to exploit multiple food resources simultaneously, and a large amount of many rodent species time is spent foraging (Bertolino 2004). Nevertheless, at some point handling time would have to become limiting.…”

Section: Fruit Production Fruit Removal and Functional Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The numerical and functional responses of a granivorous rodent and the fate of Neotropical tree seeds

Klinger

Rejmánek

2009

Ecology

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Despite their potential to provide mechanistic explanations of rates of seed dispersal and seed fate, the functional and numerical responses of seed predators have never been explicitly examined within this context. Therefore, we investigated the numerical response of a small-mammal seed predator, Heteromys desmarestianus, to disturbance-induced changes in food availability and evaluated the degree to which removal and fate of seeds of eight tree species in a lowland tropical forest in Belize were related to the functional response of H. desmarestianus to varying seed densities. Mark-recapture trapping was used to estimate abundance of H. desmarestianus in six 0.5-ha grids from July 2000 to September 2002. Fruit availability and seed fate were estimated in each grid, and two experiments nested within the grids were used to determine (1) the form of the functional response for nine levels of fruit density (2-32 fruits/m2), (2) the removal rate and handling times, and (3) the total proportion of fruits removed. The total proportion of fruits removed was determined primarily by the numerical response of H. desmarestianus to fruit availability, while removal rates and the proportion of seeds eaten or cached were related primarily to the form of the functional response. However, the numerical and functional responses interacted; H. desmarestianus showed strong spatial and temporal numerical responses to total fruit availability, and their density relative to fruit availability resulted in variation in the form of the functional response. Types I, II, and III functional responses were observed, as were density-independent responses, and these responses varied both among and within fruit species. The highest proportions of fruits were eaten when the Type III functional response was detected, which was when fruit availability was high relative to H. desmarestianus population density. Numerous idiosyncratic influences on seed fate have been documented, but our results indicate that shifts in the numerical and functional responses of seed predators to seasonal and interannual variation in seed availability potentially provide a general mechanistic explanation for patterns of removal and fate for vertebrate-dispersed seeds.

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Activity Budget and Foraging Behavior of Introduced Callosciurus Finlaysonii (Rodentia, Sciuridae) in Italy

Cited by 31 publications

References 23 publications

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Callosciurus squirrels: worldwide introductions, ecological impacts and recommendations to prevent the establishment of new invasive populations

The numerical and functional responses of a granivorous rodent and the fate of Neotropical tree seeds

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