Browsing by Author "LEIRS, Herwig"
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Item Demography, reproductive biology and diet of the bushveld gerbil Tatera leucogaster (Rodentia: Gerbillinae) in the Lake Rukwa valley, south-western Tanzania(Blackwell Publishing, 2008) ODHIAMBO, Richard O.; Makundi, Rhodes H.; LEIRS, Herwig; VERHAGEN, RonSeasonal abundance, reproductive biology and feeding ecology of the bushveld gerbil Tatera leucogaster (Peters, 1852) were investigated in small-scale maize field–fallow land mosaics in south-western Tanzania. The gerbils were collected over a 2-year period using Sherman live and Victor hold-fast snap traps in permanent 4.5-ha grids. A total of 664 individuals were captured over 13 650 trap nights, giving an overall trap success rate of 4.9%. Trap success varied between seasons with and without crops in the field but not between habitat types. At this site, the breeding activity of this species is seasonal. All individuals whose stomachs were analyzed ate a wide range of items, indicating omnivory in this species at this site; however, seeds were the most preferred diet category, with a mean contribution of 50.4%, followed by arthropods, with a mean contribution of 25.7%. Other plant materials became important during the very dry periods.Item Soil type limits population abundance of rodents in crop fields: case study of the multimammate rat Mastomys natalensis Smith, 1834 in Tanzania(Blackwell Publishing, 2008) Massawe, Apia W.; RWAMUGIRA, Winnie; LEIRS, Herwig; Makundi, Rhodes H.; Mulungu, Loth; Ngowo, V.; Machang'u, Robert S.Studies of populations of the multimammate rat Mastomys natalensis in Morogoro, Tanzania, show that soil texture appears to influence the population abundance and distribution of these rats in agricultural fields. The lowest rodent population abundance was found on sandy clay soils (F (2, 5) = 8.42; P = 0.025). The population abundances of M. natalensis on sandy clay loam and sandy loam soils did not differ significantly (P ≤ 0.05), possibly because these soils have a very similar texture. The results of this study suggest that M. natalensis prefers loam-textured soils with a high percentage of sand, which are probably better than clay soils for burrowing and nesting, particularly in the rainy season. The lower preference for clay soils is probably related to the poor aeration in these soils and the waterlogging that occurs during the wet season.