Spatial behaviour of yellow-necked wood mouse Apodemus flavicollis in two sub-Mediterranean oak coppice stands
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Spatial behaviour of yellow-necked wood mouse Apodemus flavicollis in two sub-Mediterranean oak coppice stands Andrea Bonacchi 1,2 & Olivier Devineau 3 & Paola Bartolommei 1 & Cristina Bencini 1 & Carlo Cinque 1 & Stefania Gasperini 1 & Emiliano Manzo 1 & Roberto Cozzolino 1 Received: 21 April 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 # Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bialowieza, Poland 2020
Abstract Strong mutual relationships exist between rodents and ecosystems. By modifying the structure and functioning of ecosystems, human activity can affect rodent behaviour and ecology. The yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis is widespread in Europe, and its spatial ecology has been studied in various habitats, but studies are lacking for Mediterranean forests often altered by forest management practices. We investigated the spatial behaviour of A. flavicollis in a sub-Mediterranean deciduous oak forest of central Italy subject to forest management. We radio-tracked 27 individuals in two different coppice stands, i.e. a recently cut area and a high forest, differing in terms of species-specific habitat quality and rodent population density. We analysed the size of home ranges in relation to habitat type and sex. Our results revealed that home range and core area size did not differ between habitat types or sexes. The spatial behaviour of A. flavicollis thus did not appear to be influenced by population density and habitat quality. The lack of sex-related differences confirms the current knowledge on the species’ spatial ecology. Our findings provide the first useful information on the spatial behaviour of A. flavicollis in sub-Mediterranean deciduous oak forests, whose ecological processes may be markedly influenced by this key species at several trophic levels. Keywords Radio-tracking . Oak forest . Home range . Forest management . Rodent
Introduction By modifying natural habitats, humans are altering the structure and functioning of ecosystems, thus affecting animal behaviour and ecology (Debinski and Holt 2000; Wong and Candolin 2014). Animals typically alter their movement behaviour as they adapt to changes in resource availability and landscape structure; therefore, habitat modification can Communicated by: Magdalena Niedziałkowska * Andrea Bonacchi [email protected] 1
Fondazione Ethoikos, Convento dell’Osservanza, 53030 Radicondoli, Siena, Italy
2
U.R. Ecologia comportamentale, Etologia e Gestione della Fauna, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italy
3
Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Campus Evenstad, N-2480 Koppang, Norway
sensibly alter animal movement (Doherty and Driscoll 2018). This can entail ecological consequences in the case of rodents as they are commonly among the main preys of uppertrophic-level species (Smith and Slatkin 1973; Hanski et al. 2001), and they a
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