Correlations between Breeding Activity in the Marsupial Bandicoots and some Environmental Variables

Abstract

The percentage of lactating females in wild populations of bandicoots, observed during each month of the year, has been correlated with the environmental variables of daylength, rainfall and temperature, and derivatives of these variables. Breeding activity recorded in four studies carried out in each of the eastern Australian states, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, was examined. In all four studies, the proportion of lactating females was strongly correlated with the rate of change of minimum temperature, although in some studies rainfall and daylength showed some small additional associations. An analysis of the number of births in a housed captive population in Queensland similarly showed a stronger association of numbers of births to rate of change of minimum temperature than to any other environmental variable examined.