Habitat and sex effects on behaviour in fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rats (Melomys cervinipes)
Emma M. P. Delarue A , Sarah E. Kerr A and Tasmin L. Rymer
A B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia.
B Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: tasmin.rymer@jcu.edu.au
Australian Mammalogy 43(3) 319-329 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM19065
Submitted: 19 November 2019 Accepted: 18 September 2020 Published: 14 October 2020
Abstract
Habitat complexity reflects resource availability and predation pressure – both factors that influence behaviour. We investigated whether exploratory behaviour and activity varied in fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rats (Melomys cervinipes) from two habitats that were categorised differently based on vegetation. We conducted vegetation surveys to determine structural complexity and vegetation cover, confirming that an abandoned hoop-pine (Araucaria cunninghami) plantation forest was structurally less complex, with lower vegetation cover than a variable secondary rainforest. We then tested mosaic-tailed rats from both sites in four behavioural tests designed to assess exploratory and activity behaviours (open field, novel object, light-dark box, acoustic startle), predicting that rats from the less structurally complex habitat would be less exploratory, and show lower activity. Our results provide some evidence for a context-specific trade-off between exploratory behaviour and predation risk in rats from the abandoned hoop pine plantation, as rats were less active, and showed a freezing strategy in the light-dark box. We also found context-specific sex differences in behaviour in response to a novel object and sound. Our results suggest that small-scale variation in habitat structure and complexity, as well as sex differences, is associated with variation in behaviour, most likely through effects on resource availability and/or predation risk.
Keywords: activity, exploratory behaviour, habitat complexity, native rodent, predation risk, vegetation cover.
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