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Fitness of the pestiferous small rodent Mastomys natalensis in an agroecosystem in Mayuge district, Lake Victoria Crescent, Uganda

  • Alex Mayamba ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Bram Vanden Broecke , Herwig Leirs , Brian E. Isabirye , Robert M. Byamungu , Alice Nakiyemba , Moses Isabirye , David Kifumba , Apia W. Massawe , Didas N. Kimaro , Mshaka E. Mdangi and Loth S. Mulungu
Published/Copyright: December 12, 2019
Mammalia
From the journal Mammalia Volume 84 Issue 4

Abstract

A 2.5-year study was conducted to understand the fitness of Mastomys natalensis in an agroecosystem in relationship with environmental predictors. The study was conducted in Mayuge district, in the Lake Victoria Crescent zone in Eastern Uganda. Fitness was measured in terms of survival, maturation and capture probability and estimated using multi-event capture-recapture models. Survival rates were higher after high rainfall in the previous month and increased with increasing population density of the animals. Maturation rate, on the other hand, showed no significant association with any predictor variables, while capture probability was significantly associated with sex of the animals, with higher capture probability for males. The results demonstrate that the fitness of M. natalensis in an agroecosystem is dependent on rainfall, sex and current population density. The aforementioned results were associated with increasing vegetation which provides cover for animal nesting and abundant food for the animals during rainfall periods and thus increased survival, high mobility in males in search for mates thus exposing animals to high chances of being captured and increased prey saturation at high population density resulting in high animal survival. These results have important implications for the timing of management strategies, i.e. control efforts should be enforced during the rainfall seasons to prevent high population buildup in the succeeding seasons.

Keywords: capture-recapture; Mastomys natalensis; maturation estimates; multistate model; survival

Acknowledgments

We are extremely grateful to the Ecologically Based Management of Rodent Pests in Maize and Rice in East Africa, a project granted to Sokoine University of Agriculture (Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000865, Project number OPP1112579) by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. We would like to thank the project research team, Ramadhan Idd Kingunguli, Alex Kisakye and Khalid Kibwana, for their help with practical and fieldwork, and the farmers who offered their land where the trials were established. We also acknowledge the support from Busitema University, Namasagali campus for their support in different aspects during the implementation of field activities in the study sites.

  1. Author contributions: A. Mayamba, L.S. Mulungu, R.H. Makundi and A.P. Massawe conceived the ideas and designed the methodology. All authors contributed to data collection. B. Vanden Broecke, A. Mayamba, L.S. Mulungu, H. Leirs and B. Isabirye analyzed the data and led the writing of the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

  2. Data accessibility statement: The authors of this manuscript have collectively agreed to have the data used in the Results section to publicly avail that information to a public domain Dryad once this paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Mammalia.

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Received: 2019-08-08
Accepted: 2019-11-05
Published Online: 2019-12-12
Published in Print: 2020-03-26

©2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2019-0101
Keywords for this article
capture-recapture; Mastomys natalensis; maturation estimates; multistate model; survival

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Ecology
  3. The effect of seasonal variation on the activity patterns of the American black bear: an ecological niche modeling approach
  4. Diet selection and habitat use by the mountain vizcacha (Lagidium viscacia) in the Southern Andean Precordillera (Argentina)
  5. Home ranges, sex ratio and recruitment of the multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis) in semi-arid areas in Tanzania
  6. Fitness of the pestiferous small rodent Mastomys natalensis in an agroecosystem in Mayuge district, Lake Victoria Crescent, Uganda
  7. An evaluation of thermal infrared cameras for surveying hedgehogs in parkland habitats
  8. Modified live traps increase capture success of semifossorial voles in Alpine meadows
  9. Food of a Chinese jumping mouse, Eozapus setchuanus (Pousargues, 1896)
  10. Conservation
  11. First record of existence of Rhinolophus malayanus (Chiroptera, Rhinolophidae) in China
  12. Discovery of a new genus record for Paraguay, the Atlantic Forest endemic rodent Abrawayaomys (Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae)
  13. Ethology
  14. The “corpse bride” strikes again: first report of the Davian behaviour in the Eurasian badger
  15. Taxonomy
  16. A new species of crab-eating rat of the genus Ichthyomys, from Ecuador (Rodentia, Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae)
  17. Assessing the status of critically endangered Kondana soft-furred rat (Millardia kondana) using integrative taxonomy: combining evidence from morphological, molecular and environmental niche modeling
  18. A new record and phylogenetic position of Notiosorex crawfordi (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae) with distribution in Zacatecas, Mexico, using mitochondrial DNA
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