Circadian activity of the fat dormouse Glis glis measured with camera traps at bait stations

Randler, Christoph; Kalb, Nadine

doi:10.1007/s13364-021-00583-6

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…In recent times, camera-trapping has been shown as a reliable method to estimate activity rhythms of wildlife, when a consistent number of records (i.e., over 30) is available for each species [29]. As for small rodents, camera-trapping has been mostly used to study activity patterns of easily identifiable species (e.g., diurnal species [30][31][32] or those showing unmistakable morphological features [33,34]). Conversely, this method has been poorly applied to small ground-dwelling rodents, possibly because of the difficulties in species identification from black/white videos [13,35,36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Partitioning between Forest-Dwelling Small Rodents in a Mediterranean Deciduous Woodland

Viviano

Scarfò

Mori

2022

Animals

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Temporal partitioning is reported as one of the main strategies adopted by coexisting mammal species to limit interspecific competition and behavioural interference. In the last decades, camera-trapping surveys have provided valuable insights in assessing temporal niche and activity rhythms of medium and large-sized mammalian species. Conversely, this method has been poorly applied to small rodents. In this work we aimed at assessing temporal niche partitioning between two species of forest-dwelling small rodents—Apodemus flavicollis and Clethrionomys glareolus—by means of intensive camera-trapping. Camera traps were placed in areas where previous genetic analyses have confirmed the only presence of A. flavicollis amongst wood mice species, to prevent misinterpretation of records. We collected 124 independent records of A. flavicollis and 67 records of C. glareolus over three years. The former was mostly nocturnal, with activity peaking after midnight, whereas the latter was mostly active at dawn and dusk. Therefore, a limited temporal overlap was observed, confirming the potential for interspecific competition. Intraguild interference competition between A. flavicollis and C. glareolus may play a pivotal role forcing C. glareolus to be more active in daylight hours where, the more strictly nocturnal A. flavicollis is present. Nocturnal activity of C. glareolus was limited and not influenced by moon phases, whereas A. flavicollis was mostly active in the darkest nights, avoiding bright moonlight nights.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Partitioning between Forest-Dwelling Small Rodents in a Mediterranean Deciduous Woodland

Viviano

Scarfò

Mori

2022

Animals

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“…As the first step of the analysis, we removed images of the same species recorded at the same location occurring in < 5 min from our image collection to reduce pseudo-replication bias (Meek et al 2014;Meredith and Ridout 2014). This interval is commonly used in camera trapping studies (e.g., Diete et al 2017;Randler and Kalb 2021) and enabled us to maximise the number of theoretically independent detections allowing more precise estimation of diel activity patterns (Ridout and Linkie 2009). Picture metadata were extracted with TotalCommander software and used to build a database including camera site, species, additional species, and date, and time of each image.…”

Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and diel activity patterns of small mammal guilds on the Pannonian Steppe: a step towards a better understanding of the ecology of the endangered Hungarian birch mouse (Sicista trizona) (Sminthidae, Rodentia)

2022

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Temporal activity differences facilitate species’ coexistence by reducing interspecific competition. Such patterns can be studied via diel activity analysis, but obtaining data in cryptic mammals is difficult. We investigated the annual and diel activity pattern of such a small mammal, the endangered Hungarian birch mouse (Sicista trizona trizona), in its only known habitat. We employ trail cameras for the first time to reveal the diel and annual activity of a sminthid species. Data acquisition included the spring and summer seasons between 2019 and 2022 and was extended to detect the activity overlaps with other common coexisting rodents and shrews. The diel activity results rely on 581 detections of S. trizona over 5670 trap-nights of camera trap deployment characterising also activity pattern of the small mammal community in this Central European grassland ecosystem. S. trizona was not recorded during the day but was active at dawn and night, and in comparison with other coexisting species, its activity level was high. The presumed cold sensitivity was not confirmed as we detected activity at −6 °C. Diel activity peaked in early May in the mating season. Although the diel activity pattern of co-occurring small mammal species was also nocturnal, activity overlaps were relatively high suggesting that temporal niche partitioning is limited within the habitat. Our work provides the first insight into temporal overlaps within a small mammal community in a natural European grassland, moreover, also the first documented research on the activity pattern of a sminthid in its natural habitat.

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Seasonal variation in the activity pattern of red squirrels and their mammalian predators

Kalb,

Schlindwein,

Gottschalk

et al. 2024

Mamm Res

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Camera traps are a powerful tool to monitor the activity pattern of species over long time periods. Camera data can be used to analyze activity patterns of or temporal niche partitioning among species. Temporal niche partitioning plays an important role for species coexistence and is under constant evolutionary pressure from predator-prey relationships. Our study aimed to investigate temporal shifts in activity patterns of red squirrels and two mammalian predators, red fox and marten (Martes spec.). Previous studies yielded different activity patterns for these species depending on location, season, predator-prey interactions, and food- availability. We used camera traps to monitor the activity of squirrels, red fox and martens throughout a whole year in a mountainous forest in southwestern Germany. We also investigated a possible difference in activity among different color morphs as coloration in mammals is often associated with concealment, for squirrels, however, such an effect could not be demonstrated so far. We found a diurnal activity for squirrels in all seasons with a bimodal activity pattern during spring, trimodal in summer and unimodal in fall and winter. Activity patterns did not differ between black and red color morphs. The activity of the squirrels showed only low to moderate overlaps with fox and marten, but there was still slight variation among seasons. Activity overlaps were higher in spring and summer, which coincides with breeding season. Our results suggest that predators might adjust their activity during squirrel breeding season to increase the chance of preying on their offspring. Squirrels in turn could benefit by minimizing the activity overlap during wintertime when they are highly visible to predators as trees are leaf-free or even snow might enhance the contrast between them and their background. Lastly, our results indicate that temporal niche portioning among red squirrel, red fox and martens might be rather fine scaled.

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Circadian activity of the fat dormouse Glis glis measured with camera traps at bait stations

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

Temporal Partitioning between Forest-Dwelling Small Rodents in a Mediterranean Deciduous Woodland

Temporal Partitioning between Forest-Dwelling Small Rodents in a Mediterranean Deciduous Woodland

Seasonal and diel activity patterns of small mammal guilds on the Pannonian Steppe: a step towards a better understanding of the ecology of the endangered Hungarian birch mouse (Sicista trizona) (Sminthidae, Rodentia)

Seasonal variation in the activity pattern of red squirrels and their mammalian predators

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