Self‐defence may not be enough: moonlight avoidance in a large, spiny rodent

Abstract

Predation avoidance is one of the main factors determining nocturnal activity of mammals, which has been shaped by evolution in relation to local environmental variables. The nocturnal activity of 16 female and 11 male radio-tagged adult crested porcupines Hystrix cristata was studied in four study sites of Southern Tuscany (Central Italy), with different environmental features. The activity patterns of porcupines, monitored for 16-23 h per week per individual, were correlated to lunar phases, in open/closed habitat types, throughout the year. The median duration of nocturnal activity was 7 h and 38 min, with no significant seasonal variation. Moonlight avoidance was shown in all our study sites, throughout the year, especially in open habitats. Full moon, irrespective of its visibility, always inhibited activity of this large rodent. Old World porcupines originated 5 million years ago in the forests of Asia and Africa, where a number of large carnivores must have preyed -and still prey -on them. Most likely, moonlight avoidance evolved as an antipredatory behaviour. In areas with no or little predation risk for example our study sites, moonlight avoidance could have been kept in the repertoire of porcupines because of its non-maladaptive nature.

Nocturnal activity of a “diurnal” species, the northern chamois, in a predator-free Alpine area

“…Circular statistics (Rayleigh test) were used to assess whether the nocturnal activity of chamois was related to moon phase through the R package CircStat (Agostinelli 2009). The density curves, which indicates the concentration of activity records along the lunar cycle, were (i) smoothed with the kernel method and (ii) double plotted to show circularity (Mori et al, 2014).…”

“…As a response, prey species decrease predator efficiency by concentrating their movements in what we perceive as total darkness (e.g. Penteriani et al, 2013;Mori et al, 2014) and/or dense vegetation cover and shrub canopies (Mandelik et al, 2003;Prugh and Golden, 2014). Antipredatory tactics of potential prey should primarily involve avoidance of predators, e.g.…”

Ectoparasite load in the crested porcupine Hystrix cristata Linnaeus, 1758 in Central Italy

“…Captures took place in the framework of a large research project on the ecology of this species between 1990 and 2014 (Lovari et al 2013;Mori et al 2014a). Permits for captures were provided by the Provincial Councils of Siena and Grosseto and the Environment Ministry, both granted by the approval of the National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA).…”

“…The crested porcupine Hystrix cristata is a mainly nocturnal rodent (Mori et al 2014a), which spends diurnal hours in underground dens (Monetti et al 2005). Social organization of porcupines sharing the same lair includes a pair of adult individuals, subadults, and cubs, up to six to eight individuals (Monetti et al 2005;Mori and Lovari 2014).…”

Lunar phobia in phyllostomid bats at La Ceiba, Tuxpan, Veracruz

“…Agropec. 5(13):165-170,2018 this phenomenon has been described in dierent organisms and is mainly associated with a strategy to reduce predation risks (Mori et al 2014, PratasSantiago et al 2017.…”