Foraging behaviour and habitat use by Antechinus flavipes and Sminthopsis murina (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in response to predation risk in eucalypt woodland

Stokes, Vicki L.; Pech, Roger P.; Banks, Peter B.; Arthur, Anthony D.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2003.12.012

Cited by 79 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Leaf litter is a productive foraging substrate and provides nesting sites and nesting material for small mammals (Mac Nally and Brown 2001;McElhinny et al 2006;Gresser 2009). Links between E. wandoo condition, the microhabitat and mammal abundance and species richness reinforce general findings in the literature that small mammal communities are strongly related to their habitat (Bowers and Dooley 1993;Lagos et al 1995;Bos and Carthew 2003;Stokes et al 2004;Torre and Diaz 2004;Stephens et al 2012) and point towards a greater number and diversity of mammals at sites with healthier E. wandoo trees.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Does woodland condition influence the diversity and abundance of small mammal communities?

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Loss of mammal species in Australia in the last 200 years has been attributed to many factors including habitat removal and altered fire regimes. Decline in tree condition could contribute further to the ongoing decline of mammals. Eucalyptus wandoo trees are currently undergoing a decline in condition that can result in a loss of canopy and other changes to the habitat. This paper examines the relationships between E. wandoo tree condition, habitat characteristics and small mammal species richness and abundance. Live-capture trapping was conducted at 24 E. wandoo sites at Dryandra State Forest and Wandoo Conservation Park, Western Australia. Condition and microhabitat variables of E. wandoo were recorded for each site. Generalised additive mixed models revealed a range of habitat and tree condition characteristics that influenced small mammal abundance and species richness, including site litter cover, crown dieback, understorey vegetation cover and tree density. The availability of coarse woody debris played a large role in explaining the abundance of Cercartetus concinnus and Antechinus flavipes, along with other microhabitat and tree condition variables, such as tree leaf litter and crown dieback. Epicormic growth, crown density and the distance to the drift fence from E. wandoo trees were the common variables in the best model for the abundance of Sminthopsis griseoventer. The decline in condition of E. wandoo and the subsequent modifications to the microhabitat are correlated with changes in the small mammal community. A better understanding of how the decline of E. wandoo impacts small mammal communities could improve management practices in E. wandoo woodlands.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Does woodland condition influence the diversity and abundance of small mammal communities?

et al. 2014

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“…Arid-zone dunnarts also show little site fidelity (Dickman et al, 2001) and the usually patchy grassland fires might simply result in a home range shift. Conversely, antechinus prefer more cluttered and complex habitats in forests (Stokes et al, 2004;Kelly, 2006;Crowther, 2013), remain in their familiar home range even after fire and would therefore experience a much greater increase in post-fire predation pressure when vegetation cover is reduced to charcoal and ash.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new cue for torpor induction: charcoal, ash and smoke

Stawski

Nowack

Körtner

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Recent work has shown that the use of torpor for energy conservation increases after forest fires in heterothermic mammals, probably in response to the reduction of food. However, the specific environmental cues for this increased torpor expression remain unknown. It is possible that smoke and the novel substrate of charcoal and ash act as signals for an impending period of starvation requiring torpor. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the combined cues of smoke, a charcoal/ash substrate and food shortage will enhance torpor expression in a small forest-dwelling marsupial, the yellowfooted antechinus (Antechinus flavipes), because like other animals that live in fire-prone habitats they must effectively respond to fires to ensure survival. Activity and body temperature patterns of individuals in outdoor aviaries were measured under natural environmental conditions. All individuals were strictly nocturnal, but diurnal activity was observed shortly after smoke exposure. Overall, torpor in females was longer and deeper than that in males. Interestingly, while both males and females increased daily torpor duration during food restriction by >2-fold as anticipated, a combination of food restriction and smoke exposure on a charcoal/ash substrate further increased daily torpor duration by ∼2-fold in both sexes. These data show that this combination of cues for torpor induction is stronger than food shortage on its own. Our study provides significant new information on how a small forest-dwelling mammal responds to fire cues during and immediately after a fire and identifies a new, not previously recognised, regulatory mechanism for thermal biology in mammals.

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“…Theoretically, the relationship between stress and memory formation can be described as an inverted U-shaped curve, the classic YerkesDotson 1908 curve (Shors, 2004) where, at low levels of stress, memory is impaired because of a lack of stimulation (i.e., boredom); whereas at intermediate levels of stress, memory is enhanced; and finally at high levels of stress, the organisms' ability to form memory is again reduced (Martens et al, 2007a,b). In nature, animals are exposed to a broad range of stressful challenges; of these factors, predator-prey interactions are one of the most intensely studied (Rundle and Bronmark, 2001;Herberholz et al, 2004;Stokes et al, 2004). Prey animals often exhibit a wide range of responses to predator threat, including morphological (e.g., spines and armor), physiological (e.g., toxins), and behavioral adaptations, including predator avoidance (Kavaliers and Choleris, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrophysiological and Behavioral Evidence Demonstrating That Predator Detection Alters Adaptive Behaviors in the SnailLymnaea

Orr¹,

Lukowiak²

2008

J. Neurosci.

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Stress has been shown to both impair and enhance learning, long-term memory (LTM) formation, and/or its recall. The pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, both detects and responds to the scent of a crayfish predator with multiple stress-related behavioral responses. Using both behavioral and electrophysiological evidence, this investigation is a first attempt to characterize how an environmentally relevant stressor (scent of a predator) enhances LTM formation in Lymnaea. Using a training procedure that, in "standard" pond water (PW), results in an intermediate-term memory that persists for only 3 h, we found that training snails in "crayfish effluent" (CE) induces a memory that persists for 48 h (i.e., its now an LTM). In addition, if we use a training procedure that in PW produces an LTM that persists for 1 d, we find that snails trained in CE have an LTM that persists for at least 8 d. Furthermore, we describe how a single neuron (RPeD1), which has been shown to be a necessary site for LTM formation, reflects the behavioral changes in its firing properties that persist for the duration of the LTM. Finally, Lymnaea exhibit context-specific memory, that is, when a memory is formed in a specific context (food odorant), it is only recalled in that context. Here, we found that snails trained in CE demonstrate context generalization, that is, memory is recalled in multiple contexts. All data are consistent with the hypothesis that learning in a stressful, yet biologically relevant, environment enhances LTM and prolongs its retention.

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Foraging behaviour and habitat use by Antechinus flavipes and Sminthopsis murina (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in response to predation risk in eucalypt woodland

Cited by 79 publications

References 45 publications

Does woodland condition influence the diversity and abundance of small mammal communities?

Does woodland condition influence the diversity and abundance of small mammal communities?

A new cue for torpor induction: charcoal, ash and smoke

Electrophysiological and Behavioral Evidence Demonstrating That Predator Detection Alters Adaptive Behaviors in the SnailLymnaea

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