Microhabitat selection by small mammals in response to fire
Dylan M. Lees
A * , Darcy J. Watchorn A , Don A. Driscoll A and Tim S. Doherty A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus), Deakin University, Burwood, Vic. 3125, Australia.
B School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Australian Journal of Zoology 69(3) 67-79 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO21022
Submitted: 17 June 2021 Accepted: 16 December 2021 Published: 11 February 2022
© 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Understanding how fire influences animal behaviour, such as movement and resource selection, is important for ecosystem management because it can improve our capacity to predict how species will respond. We assessed microhabitat selection by two small mammals, the bush rat (Rattus fuscipes) and agile antechinus (Antechinus agilis), in response to a low intensity prescribed fire. We used spool and line tracking and touch pole vegetation surveys to quantify microhabitat selection along 21 trails for bush rats and 22 for antechinuses before and after fire. In unburnt areas, bush rats showed positive selection for sedges, logs, and habitat complexity, with selection further increasing in burnt areas for sedges, ferns, shrubs, habitat complexity and unburnt patches. Agile antechinuses showed no significant microhabitat selection in unburnt or burnt areas and no change in response to fire. Their lack of response to ground fires may be due, partially, to their scansorial behaviour and use of tree hollows as refuge sites. Strong selection by bush rats for small unburnt patches suggests that even low intensity, patchy fires such as planned burns can impact bush rats and that high burn patchiness may help bush rats persist in recently burnt areas. Future fire planning should consider both behavioural and population responses of animals to fire.
Keywords: bushfire, dasyurid, disturbance, fire ecology, habitat use, megafire, planned burn, prescribed burn, resource selection, rodent, wildfire.
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