Population dynamics of Akodon montensis and Oligoryzomys nigripes in an Araucaria forest of Southern Brazil
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Daniel Galiano
, Bruno Busnelo Kubiak
Abstract
We investigated the demographic parameters and the relationships between population density and extrinsic factors (temperature, rainfall, humidity and insolation) of two sigmodontine rodents (Akodon montensis and Oligoryzomys nigripes) in an Araucaria forest of southern Brazil. We followed the Cormarck-Jolly-Seber (CJS) method to estimate population parameters and density for each trapping session from November 2008 to August 2009. The relationships between density and extrinsic factors for each month were tested by simple linear regressions. Akodon montensis displayed the highest population size in three of the eight samples and showed no associations with any of the extrinsic factors analyzed. This species had higher estimated mortality than recruitment for all the seasons. Oligoryzomys nigripes presented higher population size in four of the eight samples, and density was associated with low temperatures and higher rainfall. The species showed similar estimated mortality and recruitment during the seasons, and the population size increased substantially during winter. The sex ratio was not biased in any of the species. In general, these rodents could be highly variable in time, and the observed abundance variations between seasons are in accordance with patterns described in other studies.
We are grateful to the Brazilian Institute for Environmental Resources (IBAMA), especially to Remi Weirich, for authorization and support for our fieldwork in the National Park of Passo Fundo. We thank all our colleagues from the MuRAU for their support in fieldwork, Professor Luiz U. Hepp, who made valuable comments and helped in the statistical analyses, and to the CNPq/Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology for granting a scholarship to the first author.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Original Studies
- Age-gender feeding differences in dwarf blue sheep, Pseudois schaeferi (Cetartiodactyla, Bovidae) magnified by the expansion of an invasive plant species
- Trophic niche of two sympatric frugivorous bat species in a periurban area of southern Brazil
- Feeding on the edge: the diet of the hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius (Linnaeus 1758) on the northern periphery of its distributional range
- Asian badger (Meles leucurus, Mustelidae, Carnivora) habitat selection in the Xiaoxing’anling Mountains, Heilongjiang Province, China
- Habitat selection, philopatry and spatial segregation in rural Irish hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)
- Population dynamics of Akodon montensis and Oligoryzomys nigripes in an Araucaria forest of Southern Brazil
- The impact of body mass at birth on postnatal growth in captive Kuhl’s pipistrelle, Pipistrellus kuhlii (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
- Differences in population parameters of Rattus norvegicus in urban and rural habitats of central Argentina
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- Skull ontogeny of Lycalopex culpaeus (Carnivora: Canidae): description of cranial traits and craniofacial sutures
- Short Notes
- Multiple paternity in Asian black bear Ursus thibetanus (Ursidae, Carnivora) determined by microsatellite analysis
- First record of a melanistic golden jackal (Canis aureus, Canidae) from Turkey
- New records of the Spectacled Slender Opossum Marmosops ocellatus (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) with comments on its geographic distribution limits
- Second record of the pale brown ghost bat Diclidurus isabella (Thomas, 1920) (Chiroptera, Emballonuridae) from Brazil and range extension into southwestern Brazilian Amazonia
- Observation of successful mobbing of an insectivorous bat, Taphozous nudiventris (Emballonuridae), on an avian predator, Tyto alba (Tytonidae)
- Natalus macrourus (Gervais, 1856) (Chiroptera: Natalidae) is a senior synonym of Natalus espiritosantensis (Ruschi, 1951)
- Book Reviews
- Book reviews