Population fluctuations of the house mouse in a Peruvian loma and the functional response of burrowing owls

Arana, Margarita; Ruíz-Luna, María Luisa; Maria, Sergio R. Santa; Ramírez, Oswaldo

doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.2006.01671.x

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Increasing the availability of rodents, especially during the breeding season when avian species have large energy demands (Strong et al 2004), can improve owl reproductive productivity (Haley 2002, Arana et al 2006. Given the importance of California voles and Botta's pocket gophers in the diets of owls in this urban area, we recommend implementing landmanagement practices in Burrowing Owl habitat to support larger popu lations of these and other rodents that do well in urban landscapes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Diet of Western Burrowing Owls in an Urban Landscape

Trulio

Higgins

2012

Western North American Naturalist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Diet of Western Burrowing Owls in an Urban Landscape

Trulio

Higgins

2012

Western North American Naturalist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Their major predator, burrowing owls Athene cunicularia , also increase in response to this pulse of their food. However, they have no affect on the numbers of mice, and subsist in low numbers on invertebrates when mice again become scarce (Arana et al , 2006).…”

Section: The Influence Of Weather On Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of food, weather and climate in limiting the abundance of animals

2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

More and more studies are demonstrating that populations of animals - from herbivores to top predators, vertebrates and invertebrates - are limited by their food, and that the availability of this food is dictated by the weather. Satellite monitoring is revealing how cyclic and quasi-cyclic climatic patterns, like the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation, are driving and synchronising these weather-driven changes in the supplies of food. Changes in the amount of food available operate to limit the abundance of populations largely through their influence on the survival of the very young: the Achilles heel of all populations. Any individual organism struggles to use whatever resources it can get from a mostly inhospitable environment to maximise the proliferation of its genes. Each level of a food chain is thus dependent upon, and pressing hard against the limits set by the one below. The resulting intra- and inter-specific interactions produce a multitude of complex outcomes, that significantly influence the dynamics of populations, but do not determine their ultimate size. There is no density-dependent regulation of abundance. Intra-specific competition does not determine the size of populations, it only decides which few individuals gain access to the limited food. Nor do predators regulate their prey. They, too, are limited by their food, and the abundance and quality of food is dictated by the weather.

show abstract

“…On New Zealand islands lacking other terrestrial mammals density estimates are intermediate: up to 20 ha -1 in forest (Murphy 1989;MacKay et al 2011), 70 ha -1 in grassland-shrubland (Pickard 1984;Efford 2004), and 150 ha -1 in subantarctic grassland (Russell 2012). In other ecosystems worldwide, house mouse population densities have been estimated as high as 150-500 ha -1 on subantarctic islands lacking other terrestrial mammals (Parker et al 2016;McClelland et al 2018), in fluctuating populations in arid Peru (Arana et al 2006), and during outbreaks on grassy California hillsides (Pearson 1963). Mouse plagues in Australian wheat-growing areas can exceed 2000 ha -1 (Singleton et al 2007).…”

Section: Mouse Population Density and Potential Limiting Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population dynamics of house mice without mammalian predators and competitors

Wilson¹,

Innes²,

Fitzgerald³

et al. 2018

NZ J Ecol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mesopredator and competitor release can lead to population increases of invasive house mice (Mus musculus) after larger introduced mammals are controlled or eradicated. In New Zealand, mammal-resistant fences have enabled multi-species mammal eradications in order to protect indigenous species. When house mice are the only mammals remaining in these biodiversity sanctuaries, they may reach a high population density, with potential consequences for their indigenous prey. We studied mouse populations in the absence of other mammals for 5 years at mammal-resistant fenced forest sites at Maungatautari, Waikato. We used spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) to estimate mouse population density quarterly in two independently fenced sites, with contrasting levels of mouse management that were switched half-way through the study. In the absence of mouse control, mouse population density reached 30-46 ha -1 at one site each year after summer breeding, and 23 ha -1 at the other site. Mouse tracking rates in inked footprint tunnels were positively related to numbers of mice captured in each session, but not significantly to mouse density. The highest mouse densities were similar to estimates in New Zealand forest and alpine ecosystems after mass seeding (masting) events, but lower than estimates in another sanctuary and on some islands lacking larger terrestrial mammals. We suggest that in the absence of competition and predation from other mammals, food limitation may have prevented mouse populations from attaining very high densities in this mainland forest location.

show abstract

Population fluctuations of the house mouse in a Peruvian loma and the functional response of burrowing owls

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

The Diet of Western Burrowing Owls in an Urban Landscape

The Diet of Western Burrowing Owls in an Urban Landscape

The role of food, weather and climate in limiting the abundance of animals

Population dynamics of house mice without mammalian predators and competitors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About