Your food, my food: patterns of resource use in two sympatric mouse lemur species

Thorén, Sandra; Carstens, Kate F.; Schwochow, Doreen; Radespiel, Ute

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139871822.016

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although mouse lemurs are known to forage alone, they spend the days sleeping in more or less stable matrilinear groups that do not vary much in size, since they split when becoming too large (Radespiel et al, 2001;Weidt et al, 2004). As matings are confined to a very limited time period of the year, most infections with oxyurids will take place between animals sleeping in close body contact or performing allogrooming with familiar individuals of the same social group (Eichmueller et al, 2013;Thorén et al, 2016). Under these conditions, infection risk may become mostly independent from population density, but may vary rather between different sleeping groups (Nunn et al, 2011).…”

Section: Effects Of Host Population Density Sex and Body Condition On Gastrointestinal Parasitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat fragmentation and vegetation structure impact gastrointestinal parasites of small mammalian hosts in Madagascar

Kiene

Andriatsitohaina

Ramsay

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Deleterious effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on biodiversity have been demonstrated in numerous taxa. Although parasites represent a large part of worldwide biodiversity, they are mostly neglected in this context. We investigated the effects of various anthropogenic environmental changes on gastrointestinal parasite infections in four small mammal hosts inhabiting two landscapes of fragmented dry forest in northwestern Madagascar. Coproscopical examinations were performed on 1,418 fecal samples from 903 individuals of two mouse lemur species, Microcebus murinus ( n = 199) and M. ravelobensis ( n = 421), and two rodent species, the native Eliurus myoxinus ( n = 102) and the invasive Rattus rattus ( n = 181). Overall, sixteen parasite morphotypes were detected and significant prevalence differences between host species regarding the most common five parasites may be explained by parasite–host specificity or host behavior, diet, and socioecology. Ten host‐ and habitat‐related ecological variables were evaluated by generalized linear mixed modeling for significant impacts on the prevalence of the most abundant gastrointestinal parasites and on gastrointestinal parasite species richness (GPSR). Forest maturation affected homoxenous parasites (direct life cycle) by increasing Lemuricola , but decreasing Enterobiinae gen. sp. prevalence, while habitat fragmentation and vegetation clearance negatively affected the prevalence of parasites with heterogenic environment (i.e., Strongyloides spp.) or heteroxenous (indirect cycle with intermediate host) cycles, and consequently reduced GPSR. Forest edges and forest degradation likely change abiotic conditions which may reduce habitat suitability for soil‐transmitted helminths or required intermediate hosts. The fragility of complex parasite life cycles suggests understudied and potentially severe effects of decreasing habitat quality by fragmentation and degradation on hidden ecological networks that involve parasites. Since parasites can provide indispensable ecological services and ensure stability of ecosystems by modulating animal population dynamics and nutrient pathways, our study underlines the importance of habitat quality and integrity as key aspects of conservation.

show abstract

Section: Effects Of Host Population Density Sex and Body Condition On Gastrointestinal Parasitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat fragmentation and vegetation structure impact gastrointestinal parasites of small mammalian hosts in Madagascar

Kiene

Andriatsitohaina

Ramsay

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Agonistic behavior between sympatric species can cause spatial segregation and is often pronounced between species in taxonomic assemblages (Dempster and Perrin, 1990). While C. medius was reported to prevail over other cheirogaleids in contest competition (Ganzhorn and Kappeler, 1996;Ganzhorn et al, 1999), aggressive interactions between mouse lemurs at food resources are rather rare (Dammhahn and Kappeler, 2005;Thorén et al, 2016). However, spatial exclusion in coexisting species may also occur without conflicts if subordinate species use auditory or olfactory cues to detect and avoid dominant species that gain exclusive access to resource-rich microhabitats (Dickman, 1991;Rychlik and Zwolak, 2005).…”

Section: Mechanisms Stabilizing Competitive Coexistencementioning

confidence: 99%

Mouse Lemurs in an Assemblage of Cheirogaleid Primates in Menabe Central, Western Madagascar – Three Reasons to Coexist

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ecological communities are structured by interactions between coexisting species that mutually influence their distribution and abundance. Ecologically similar species are expected to exclude one another from suitable habitat, so the coexistence of two mouse lemur species in an assemblage of several closely related cheirogaleid primates in the central Menabe region of Madagascar requires explanation. We assessed the occurrence of Madame Berthe’s mouse lemurs (Microcebus berthae) and Gray mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus), and of two larger cheirogaleids, Coquerel’s giant mouse lemur (Mirza coquereli) and the western fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus medius), by nocturnal line transect walks between 2003 and 2007. We explored interspecific interactions for four different scenarios with varying resource availability (degraded and non-degraded habitat in the wet and dry season), both on the regional spatial scale and on a finer local (transect) scale. We tested whether the interspecific distribution of mouse lemur individuals indicates interspecific competition and whether their regional coexistence might be stabilized by interactions with M. coquereli or C. medius. We developed the “Inter-Species Index of Attraction” (ISIA) to quantify the observed interspecific interactions within transects and determined if these were significantly different from a null model generated by a combination of randomization and bootstrapping to control for intraspecific aggregation. For the two mouse lemurs, interspecific spatial exclusion was most pronounced during the resource-poor dry season, consistent with the hypothesis of feeding competition. Seasonally varying distribution patterns indicated resource tracking in a spatio-temporally heterogeneous environment. The interspecific distribution of individuals suggested that the larger cheirogaleids benefit M. berthae at the expense of the more abundant M. murinus: spatial associations of both, M. coquereli and C. medius, with M. murinus were negative in most scenarios and across spatial scales, but neutral or even positive with M. berthae. Thus, our study revealed that coexistence among ecologically similar heterospecifics can rely on complex density-mediated interspecific processes varying with habitat quality and season. With regard to the stability of animal assemblages, this insight has major implications for biodiversity conservation.

show abstract

“…Within these systems, social interactions still occur on a regular basis, since these species are only rarely strictly territorial and therefore do meet conspecifics regularly within their home range. During such encounters, a certain level of social tolerance should be advantageous, as solitary foragers also need to coordinate various activities, such as matings [15–18], sleeping group reunions [19], access to resources when meeting at a food source that may or may not be monopolized [3, 20], coordinated movements or space use [19, 21] or predator avoidance [22]. Despite its importance, social tolerance is much less studied in small nocturnal solitary foragers due to their small size, nocturnal activity pattern and the associated difficulty to observe social encounters in dense forest environments [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is also known that mouse lemur reproduction is highly seasonal in most species with the likely exception of those that inhabit warm lowland evergreen rainforests with high productivity such as those occurring some northern parts of Madagascar, e.g., in the region of Nosy Bé [36]. Not much is known about the social relationships in these dispersed social networks from the wild, although occasional nocturnal affiliative and agonistic encounters have been observed in several species [20, 29, 31, 37–39]. However, recent work from captivity suggests that female dominance that is untypical for mammals but formerly thought to be typical for most lemur species [40, 41], may be much more variable and plastic in mouse lemurs than expected [24, 25, 42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sources of variation in social tolerance in mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.)

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Social tolerance strongly influences the patterns of affiliation and aggression in animal societies. However, not much is known about the variation of social tolerance in species living in dispersed social systems that combine solitary foraging activities with the need of coordinating social interactions with conspecifics on a regular basis. This study aims to investigate the sources of variation in social tolerance within a Malagasy primate radiation with dispersed social systems, the mouse lemurs ( Microcebus spp.). Six mouse lemur species were selected as model species that belong to three different taxonomic clades, live in two types of forest environments (dry and humid), and differed in this study with respect to their reproductive activity. Six male–female and six male–male dyads of each species were tested temporarily in a standardized social encounter paradigm in Madagascar to collect data on joint use of space, non-agonistic body contacts, aggression rates, the number of conflicts and the establishment of intra- and intersexual dominance. Results Male–female dyads of the six species differed significantly in the frequency of affiliative and agonistic behaviors. In contrast, the variations between male–male dyads could not be explained by one parameter only, but clade membership, forest type, reproductive state as well as species were all suggested to be partially influential. Only one species ( Microcebus mamiratra ) showed signals of unambiguous female dominance in all male–female dyads, whereas the others had no or only a few dyads with female dominance. Conclusions Variations in social tolerance and its consequences are most likely influenced by two factors, ecology (via forest type) and physiology (via reproductive activity), and only to a lesser extent by clade membership. The study suggests that mouse lemur females have higher aggression rates and more agonistic conflicts with males when females in the population are reproducing, at least in resource-rich humid forests. The study confirms a high degree of social plasticity between species in these small solitary foragers that supports their taxonomic distinctiveness and requires further scientific attention. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12898-019-0236-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Your food, my food: patterns of resource use in two sympatric mouse lemur species

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

Habitat fragmentation and vegetation structure impact gastrointestinal parasites of small mammalian hosts in Madagascar

Habitat fragmentation and vegetation structure impact gastrointestinal parasites of small mammalian hosts in Madagascar

Mouse Lemurs in an Assemblage of Cheirogaleid Primates in Menabe Central, Western Madagascar – Three Reasons to Coexist

Sources of variation in social tolerance in mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About